Eleanor Roosevelt (1884-1962) was an American diplomat, writer, and one of the most politically active and influential first ladies in U.S. history. As the wife of President Franklin Delano Roosevelt, she was first lady from 1932 until his death in 1945. Particularly conscious of racial intolerance, she resigned from the Daughters of the American Revolution in 1939, when black opera singer Marian Anderson was not allowed to sing at a hall owned by that organization. Also concerned with refugee issues, Mrs. Roosevelt spoke out in favor of U.S. admission for the German-Jewish refugees on the S.S. St. Louis, while that ship waited off the U.S. coast. After the war, Mrs. Roosevelt served as the U.S. ambassador to the United Nations.
