Eleanor Roosevelt was the most politically active first lady. She held weekly press conferences and wrote newspaper and magazine columns. She consistently worked on programs to help the less-advantaged, was active in promoting civil rights, lobbied for positions and equal pay for qualified women, and helped influence some of the New Deal programs of her husband's administration. After the death of Franklin D. Roosevelt (1882-1945; see entry in volume 4) in 1945, she served with the United Nations.

Her transformation from a timid child to a self-reliant, energetic, and outspoken woman developed through several life crises. Eleanor Roosevelt was orphaned at ten, felt out of place and unattractive as a teen in the New York highsociety life of her family and social circle, endured a bossy mother-in-law, confronted her husband's unfaithfulness, and helped Roosevelt continue to be energetic after he suffered physical impairment.

As first lady, her outspokenness...