While in office as president his niece Eleanor would, in 1905, marry his fifth cousin, one Franklin D. Roosevelt.
FDR would take office during the Great Depression, the worst economic crisis in American history, but this event would only strengthen his resolve to make sweeping changes to federal legislation by implementing several programs designed to produce relief, recovery, and reform.
Such was his popularity that he would become the only president to return to office three more times. Not long into his fourth term and having helped stand up against fascism and the rise of imperial Japan, FDR would pass away April 12, 1945, aged just 63 and a few months before the Allies would be victorious.
Although it is Theodore Roosevelt’s face immortalized in stone on Mount Rushmore, many would argue that FDR set in stone the foundations of modern America.
After the passing of FDR, many believed that another Roosevelt would step into the breach, his First Lady Eleanor. Although she would decline the Democratic nomination for Senate, she did much to change America herself by advocating for expanded roles for women in the workplace, civil rights for African and Asian Americans, and support for World War II refugees.
She would also reshape the role of the First Lady in American politics with her outspokenness and public announcements and appearances. FDR’s predecessor Harry Truman would call her the “First Lady of the World”, and she would remain active in politics following her husband’s passing for the remaining 17 years of her life.
Two of the couple’s sons, James and Frank, would try and keep the family in the political spotlight by being successfully elected to Congress representing California and New York, respectively, however, their political aspirations would never progress higher than the House of Representatives.
