LETTER: Typed letter signed, to Basil O'Connor. ("Doc")
On Membership Of The Roosevelt National Memorial Committee
Written A Few Weeks After FDR’s Death
Roosevelt, Eleanor. Typed letter signed “Eleanor Roosevelt” to “Doc” [Basil O’Connor]; Washington, D.C.; May 1, 1945.
One leaf of onionskin paper; recto only; typed using a blue typewriter ribbon; with a red “received” stamp on the verso, noting the letter was received May 1, 1945 at the Chairman’s Office.
Roosevelt writes to O’Connor – one of FDR’s lifelong friends and his former law partner – weeks after her husband’s death, regarding the establishment of a Roosevelt National Memorial Committee, an organization that was meant to insure FDR’s legacy. Roosevelt was still in the early stages of planning the Committee, and she shares with O’Connor her ideas for selecting potential Committee members who had FDR’s interests at heart, namely, infantile paralysis, social philosophy and other humanitarian projects. Five days after this letter was written, Harry Truman accepted the honorary chairmanship of the Committee.
With two textual emendations by Roosevelt in the sixth paragraph, changing “this” to “thing,” and continuing by hand an unfinished typed sentence that concludes, “as [ ] with [ ].” With four additional penciled marginal notes, in a different, unidentified hand. In the left margin of the fifth paragraph, the name “Lawrence Houghteling” is underlined, the word “Treas” is written in the margin and then circled. In the left margin of the final paragraph, an arrow points to the line, “It seems to me it would be a mistake” and comments, “Written at Bob [sic] request.” In the right margin of the fourth paragraph, the note, “feels one or the other,” in reference to Roosevelt’s suggestion of choosing between Dr. Conant, Mr. Bush, Mr. Etheridge or Marshall Field as committee members. The final annotation, in the margin of the last paragraph, reads, “bitch!” and is a comment on Roosevelt’s suggestion that O’Connor should not be president of three committees.
In Roosevelt’s memoir, This I Remember, she describes O’Connor as “[FDR’s friend and associate in many things that were close to his heart” (p. 350). FDR and O’Connor formed a law partnership together in 1924; he also was the co-founder of the Georgia Warm Springs foundation, which fought against the scourge of polio. O’Connor was a member of FDR’s “brain trust” during the 1932 Presidential campaign and was appointed by FDR as chairman of the Red Cross in 1944.
O’Connor chose members for the National Committee based on Roosevelt’s suggestions. Members included Secretary of Commerce Frank Wallace; playwright/producer John Golden; FDR speechwriter Robert Sherwood; FDR’s uncle, Lawrence Houghteling; as well as James Conant, Robert Woodruff and Marshall Field, who were chosen over Secretary of State William Macomber, Mr. Gifford and Edward Flynn. Later members included Bernard Baruch, Felix Frankfurter, Henry Morgenthau, Frances Perkins and the heads of Harvard, Tuskegee and Vassar.
A lengthy letter of historical importance, providing insight to the planning stages of Roosevelt National Memorial Committee.
(#12734)
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