Eleanor Roosevelt was born in New York City, New York, on October 11, 1884. Both of her parents and one of her brothers died before she was ten years old, so she and her surviving brother were raised by her relatives. When she was 15, she attended Allenswood girls boarding school in London, England. In 1902, she had to return to New York even though she was happy in England because she had to prepare for her induction into society. It was then that she began teaching at a Manhattan Lower East Side settlement house.
On March 17, 1905, Eleanor married her distant cousin, Franklin Roosevelt, in New York City, New York. Together, they had six children, but one died as an infant. She was elected to the Senate in 1911, but in April 1917, she returned to volunteer work. With the war going on, she visited wounded soldiers and participated in the Navy's Marine Corps Relief Society and a canteen of the Red Cross. In 1921, Eleanor joined the Women's Trade Union League and took an active role in the democratic party. She also became a member of the Legislative Affairs Committee of the League of Women Voters.
Then, Eleanor's husband became president of the United States, and she became first lady. She had regular press conferences with women correspondents, became the president's "eyes and ears", wrote a newspaper column every day called "My Day", helped with child welfare, housing reform and equal rights for all racial minorities and women, defended African Americans rights, and helped new political parties get a new start in government.
In 1945, Franklin died and Eleanor was appointed as a United Nations delegate and was the Commission on Human Rights' chairman from 1946 to 1951. In 1948, she helped draft the Universal Declaration of Human Rights and in 1961, President John Fitzgerald Kennedy appointed her as his Commission on the Status on Women's chair.
Eleanor died in New York City, New York, on November 7, 1962, of a rare form of tuberculosis. She is buried at Hyde Park where her husband lived and where their library stands.
