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F R O M VA L - K I L L C O T TA G E
THE
Vol.5 No.1
The newsletter of
Honoring Eleanor Roosevelt
A Project to Preserve Her Val-Kill Home
Winter 2010
Eleanor &
People
NY Event
Honors
Silda Wall
Spitzer
ALSO INSIDE:
An Extraordinary Benefit
Interview with
Carol Hillman, Chair
Personal Reminscence
My Day, Jan. 2, 1940
by Eleanor Roosevelt
Please Donate!
NOTES FROM THE CHAIR
Carol and Hildie
Dear Friends of Val-Kill:
Just as the young girl on page one embraces
Eleanor Roosevelt, we hope that more people,
young and old, will also embrace Mrs.
Roosevelt’s legacy and work for human rights
around the world.
Val-Kill is the place where Eleanor did that
work. It’s where she grew into her own, wrote her My Day Columns and
met with world leaders in search of solutions to the challenge of world
peace. Our mission is and has always been to preserve that legacy through
Val-Kill. Our goal is to inspire those who know her and to introduce new
people to Eleanor Roosevelt in the hope that they will take action to
accomplish her still unfinished goals. We need your help to do this.
It’s year end, and on behalf of the executive committee of Honoring Eleanor
Roosevelt, I am asking you to make your annual contribution to preserving
Eleanor Roosevelt’s legacy through preserving her Val-Kill home, the only
National Historic Site dedicated to a First Lady. Your continued support is
crucial to our work to restore the buildings at Val-Kill and create new
exhibits for Stone Cottage.
As always, thank you so much for your commitment to our work. On behalf
of our executive committee and all our friends at the National Park Service,
we send our best wishes for a happy Holiday and New Year.
Warmest regards, Carol
Val-Kill needs your help.
August 15, 2010: Roosevelt Institute Campus Network student staff tour Val-kill for the first time with
founding member/ alum and Honoring Eleanor Roosevelt Executive Director, tommie Watson (left).
Your generosity over the past 12 years has made preserving Val-Kill
possible—more than $1,000,000 raised for building and garden restoration
and on-site exhibits. Now we need your help to continue our work: restoration of Stone Cottage and exhibits and restoration of ER’s sleeping porch.
Won’t you help us preserve Eleanor Roosevelt’s legacy so that current and
future generations can experience and be inspired by her strength, humanity
and courage.
DON’t DELAy! MAkE yOuR DONAtION tODAy
Honoring
E leanor Roosevelt
A Project to Preserve Her Val-kill Home
Hillary Rodham Clinton, Founding Chair,
Save America’s Treasures
Claudine Bacher, Founding Chair,
Honoring ER
Carol Hillman, Chair, Honoring ER
Save America’s Treasures
Bobbie Greene McCarthy, Director
National Park Service
Sarah Olson, Superintendent, ROVA
Executive Committee
Claudine Bacher
Mary Champenois, Emerita
Georgie Gatch
Betsy Shure Gross
Carol Hillman
Barbara A. Levy
Bobbie Greene McCarthy
Harriet Millrose
National Council Members
Jane Alexander
Allida M. Black, PhD
Blanche Wiesen Cook, PhD
Susan Curnan
Priscilla H. Douglas EdD
Deborah Duran
Susan Eisenhower
Hamilton Fish III
Senator Kirsten Gillibrand
Blanche K. Goldstein, Esq.
Senator & Mrs. Bob Graham
Pamela Hayes, Esq.
Cheryl Bell Homer
Risa A. Levine, Esq.
Representative Nita Lowey
Sally Minard
Richard Moe
Sharon Patrick
James & Ann Roosevelt
Eleanor Seagraves
Silda Wall Spitzer, Esq.
Cathy Douglas Stone, Esq.
Kathleen Kennedy Townsend
The Honorable
Christine Todd Whitman
Staff
Tommie Watson, Executive Director
Judith Ross Morris, Editor & Designer,
The View from Val-Kill Cottage
We welcome your comments. Please contact
[email protected]
Visit our website:
www.honoringeleanorroosevelt.org
using the enclosed envelope
Join us on
Honoring Eleanor Roosevelt
A Project to Preserve Her Val-Kill Home
Search “Honoring Eleanor Roosevelt”
No Ordinary Time
No Ordinary Woman
An extraordinary benefit to preserve Eleanor Roosevelt’s legendary legacy and her
Val-Kill home--the only National Historic Site dedicated to a First Lady.
Please join us for a benefit to support the mission of
Honoring Eleanor Roosevelt and to renew our commitment to preserving her legacy as an activist for social
justice, civic responsibility, human rights and democracy.
No Ordinary Time
No Ordinary Woman
Sunday, May 15, 2011, 6 p.m.
Kathryn Dietz, co-producer of WGBH’s American
experience Series: eleanor roosevelt, is producing a
film for the occasion. in addition we will present the
prestigious Following in Her Footsteps Award to two
extraordinary women for their life’s work in carrying on
er’s legacy. recipients are: Chobee Hoy, Brookline,
MA, civic leader and philanthropist and Jackie Jenkins
Scott, President of Wheelock College and advocate for
children, community leader and public health advocate.
At the historic
Jane Alexander, noted actor, long-time supporter of the
Val-Kill project and former fighting chair of the National
endowment for the Arts, will be our special guest that
evening.
Coolidge Corner Theatre
Brookline, MA
__________________
Sponsorships are available at the
$1,000, $2,500, $5,000,
$10,000 and up levels.
FOr MOre iNFOrMATiON:
Contact Tommie Watson
(617) 365-6788
[email protected]
This benefit has been organized by a distinguished committee of New Englanders who wish to support the Eleanor Roosevelt legacy and Val-Kill.
Photo: Restored interior of the historic Coolidge Corner Theatre
3
Honoring Eleanor
SIldA WAll SpITzER
Our November 18th fall event in New York City was
held at the tasteful quarters of The Junior League, of
which ER was a member. In those days she and her society friends used to go to the settlement houses on the
lower East Side where ER not only taught calisthenics to
immigrant youngsters but actually went into the tenements and saw for herself the poverty and grim lives of
these children. She came away with lasting impressions
that further nurtured her humanitarian instincts.
The roster of speakers was especially outstanding:
Blanche Wiesen Cook, ER’s eminent biographer and
ind
my Sisk
A
d
n
a
ll
Goodse
Stefanie
human rights activist and Ruth Gruber a 99-year-old
wonder who knew ER personally. Blanche first roused
the audience with her impassioned remarks on remaining
ever vigilant to safeguard our individual liberties, a message so well delivered by ER over the years. Silda Spitzer,
our honoree and keynote speaker, followed with an incisive discussion of ER’s relevance to today’s world. As former first lady of NY State, she has carved a path of her
own in non-profit organizations concerned with child
advocacy. She is also currently a managing director of
Metropolitan Capital Investors. Her southern charm, graciousness and keen intelligence won everyone over.
Tommie
Watson
and Har
riet Millr
ose
cher
Fred Ba
Ruth Gr
uber, Bla
nche We
isen
Cook, Sil
da Wall S
pitzer
ason
Trudy M
Dara an
d Diann
e Spitaln
y
iegel, Diana
illman, Heidi Sp
H
ol
ar
C
,
ck
lsa
Barbara Meh
Katz
Barbara
Peck
Roosevelt salutes
pioneer & Humanitarian
By Claudine Bacher, Founding Chair
Silda’s remarks were scholarly, clever and not without
humor. She suggested that ER may well have been the
first blogger, writing her daily column My Day, and even
proposed that ER might have promoted Val-Kill Cottage
as a “green” project as we raise funds. Finally the venerable Ruth Gruber recounted her recollections of interacting with ER. This feisty, quick-witted former journalist,
photographer and humanitarian brought smiles and tears
as she told of Mrs. R’s help when Ruth escorted 1,000
holocaust victims to Oswego, NY during wartime on
special assignment for Harold Ickes, Secretary of the
Interior. We also continue to be extremely grateful to
uchman
Dana B
our friend Sarah Olson, Superintendent of the RooseveltVanderbilt sites, as she made time to come down from
Hyde Park to meet and greet our audience. What was especially nice was to see so many young
faces at our event, reminding us of our mission to this
vital generation who may be learning about ER for the
first time. Our chair, Carol Hillman, closed the program,
and I once again felt honored and pleased to be part of
our fulfilling, interesting and exciting project as we move
to yet another phase to develop Stone Cottage so that
Val-Kill may engage our visitors anew.
kers.
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Harriett and Rick
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ilda Wall
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Madeline Blinde
1
People
ELEANOR
4
2
3
5
9
1. President Harry S. Truman and Adlai Stevenson
1951
2. Will Rogers, LA 1933
3. Gary Cooper at Lake Success 1950
4. Ethiopian Emperor Haile Selassie Hyde Park
1954
5. UN General Assembly President General
Carlos Romulo of the Philippines and wife,
Virginia Llamos Romulo 1950
6. Princess Alice, Duchess of Gloucester and Mrs.
Winston Churchill 1944
7. Frank Sinatra 1960
8. Lucille Ball 1944
9. Shirley Temple 1938
10. Soong Mei-Ling, Madame Chiang Kai-shek
1943
8
Eleanor Roosevelt
Life must be lived
and curiosity kept
alive. One must
never, for whatever
reason, turn his
back on life.
7
Eleanor Roosevelt
embraced people of all
walks of life, and here are
but a few. We invite you
test your “People IQ” to
see how many of these
politicians, world leaders
and celebrities you can
identify. the answers are
below. Good luck!
10
6
My Day
January 2,1940
By Eleanor Roosevelt
The New Year is a time for new
beginnings and I hope that in the
course of this coming year we
will come measurably closer to
peace, for peace is the prelude
to all the other changes which must
come if the great mass of people
throughout the world are to look
forward to greater happiness.
Because of the war, we will find the
problems of peace intensified. We will
need to redouble our efforts in
order to bring about the solution of
many questions that are still
unsolved. But with goodwill and real
determination, we should be able to
find some real solutions, if we begin
now to prepare our minds and
Eleanor and a soldier during WW II
hearts and go about our work
unselfishly and with determination
and faith in the ways of democracy.
A number of people have sent me a
prayer which they are desirous of
having repeated throughout the
world. We were told once to gather
together to make our common supplications to the Lord. It is probable
that each one of us needs to be
apart and alone at times, and yet this
habit of joining to emphasize certain
supplications is helpful to us all. I
print this prayer, with the feeling
that it puts into words what many
people hope for the coming year.
"Let the forces of light bring illumination
to mankind.
Let the spirit of peace be abroad.
May men of good-will everywhere
Join in the spirit of cooperation.
Let the spirit of forgiveness be invoked
by men
Everywhere, one towards the other.
Let power attend the efforts of
The great servers of humanity."
NOTE: To view other My Day columns, please
visit www.gwu.edu/~erpapers/myday. World
Copyright, 1940, United Feature Syndicate, Inc.
All correspondence:
Tommie Watson
Honoring Eleanor Roosevelt
8 Jasper St
Beverly, MA 01915
Save the Date!
May 15, 2011
No Ordinary Time
No Ordinary Woman
A benefit to preserve Eleanor Roosevelt’s
legacy and her Val-Kill home
(See page 3)
Honoring Eleanor Roosevelt
A Project to Preserve Her Val-Kill Home
An Official Project of Save America's Treasures at the National Trust for Historic Preservation.
All donations made payable to “SAT/National Trust” with “Val-Kill Cottage” on the memo line are 100% tax deductible.
Eleanor Roosevelt
Woman of Today
An Interview with Carol Hillman
By Angelina Perri Birney
For an important addition to her blog, “Pure Vision: Powerful Women Changing the World”, Ms.
Birney recently interviewed Carol Hillman, Chair of Honoring Eleanor Roosevelt, to learn more
about the organization committed to protecting the legacy of the woman President Harry S. Truman
named First Woman of the World. Below is an excerpt. We invite you to read the entire interview
on Ms. Birney’s blog or www.honoringeleanorroosevelt.org.
A woman of power, a woman of influence, and a woman of principle, the resonance of Eleanor Roosevelt’s persona
only seems to strengthen with time.
Today’s young women appear to be discovering Eleanor anew, and an organization like Honoring Eleanor Roosevelt is
making certain that her legacy is protected as well as promoted, not only
through the preservation of her Val-Kill
home but through various media projects and events. Their prestigious
Following in Her Footsteps Award, in
particular, highlights a life of public service, lived in pursuit of social justice,
peace, human rights and gender equality.
To learn more about the organization, I
interviewed Carol Hillman, chair. “The
Following in Her Footsteps Award really
honors women who have taken on causes that were also very important to
Eleanor Roosevelt,” Carol explains, “such
as women’s issues, health care, preservation of the environment and human
rights. In 2009 we bestowed our award
on Secretary of State Hillary Clinton for
all of her work regarding health care
reform, helping women and children, as
well as her work in international relations. Her vision, as was Eleanor’s,
works toward the empowerment of
women and recognizes the importance
of their leadership in all walks of life. “
Carol Hillman also reflects on how
more female leadership can strengthen
our chances of really establishing and
securing human rights. “I think if you
look at Mrs. Roosevelt, who said ‘You
must do the thing you think you cannot
do,’ women are willing to do that and to
collaborate, to compromise where
appropriate, and to take personal
responsibility for decision-making.
Outspoken women such as Eleanor
Roosevelt are criticized harshly at times,
even threatened. Carol remarks on how
Eleanor is an example for women today
in this regard. “As she was being driven
through West Virginia toward her speaking engagements, Eleanor knew the Klan
was out and about. She rode past KKK
rallies determined to reach her destination no matter what. Now that’s
courage.” And Eleanor consistently
asserted that bravery and determination
in numerous, unconventional ways. “In
the 1920’s Eleanor joined the League of
Women Voters,” Carol points out. “She
spoke in favor of contraception availability. She advocated for fair wages for
women. Her My Day column was
unprecedented.”
In fact, Eleanor Roosevelt was the first
woman radio commentator as well as
the first woman to write a syndicated
column. She also proved innovative in
how she employed her power to help
establish women in what were maledominated fields. When FDR became
president, Eleanor made certain women
were involved in the process of establishing the New Deal. She ingeniously
held countless press conferences which
were only open to female journalists.
The result: news organizations had to
hire female reporters or they would be
left out of the loop.
This ability to manifest her ideas by acting simply and directly became Eleanor
Roosevelt’s trademark. Her advocacy of
women’s rights expanding into human
rights, Eleanor’s vista grew even wider
with what many consider her crowning
achievement. As chairperson for the
(UN) Human Rights Commission, she
helped foster the Universal Declaration
of Human Rights which set the highest
standard for human dignity and freedom.
The commission’s goal was to create a
document that would help prevent
another world war and establish an
international criteria for human rights
recognition which would compel abiding
nations to protect these rights.
“Something like the BP situation probably wouldn’t have happened if we were
utilizing Eleanor Roosevelt’s vision for a
just society,” Carol Hillman notes. “If she
had anything to do with policy today, she
would look after the people and assert
that the companies involved need to be
held accountable.”
Controversial, outspoken, gutsy. Eleanor
Roosevelt embodied what many women
today aspire to become. Could our present First Lady set more of an example
with regard to upholding that view?
Could Michelle Obama use her position,
as Eleanor did, to promote women’s
issues? “My hope is that the First Lady
expands her horizons a bit more,” Carol
maintains. “It would be good if she
invested time looking at issues regarding
the women and children of the world,
how they are taken care of in crisis situations, as well as health care and education.” Carol also adds that it would also
be beneficial to see the First Lady
involved in preservation work as well.
At the same time, we do not need to be
the First Lady or a famous political
leader to help make a difference. “There
is no small achievement,” Carol remarks.
“Everyone has a part to play and that
means each person can contribute.
As Eleanor Roosevelt asserted,
‘The establishment of human rights
begins in small places, close to home—
so close and so small that they cannot
be seen on any map of the world. Yet
they are the world of the individual person: The neighborhood he lives in; the
school or college he attends; the factory,
farm or office where he works…’ ”
Today, Eleanor’s voice resounds through
those who, like Carol Hillman, uphold
her ideals and principles. “I think
Eleanor’s comment that ‘Staying aloof is
not a solution, but a cowardly evasion’
says it all. She was a passionate patriot
as well as a world leader. Her message
to all is to take action, get involved, take
risks . . . and do the right thing.” A simple directive from a fearless woman.
P
ersonal reminiscence
By Barbara Brodsky Rushmore
I have many fond memories of
Eleanor Roosevelt from my
childhood...
Ms. Rushmore, 5, when she met Ms. Roosevelt..
Each year around Thanksgiving the President
and Mrs. Roosevelt spent a month at the Warm
Springs Foundation in Warm Springs, Georgia,
where I grew up.
Ms. Rushmore today
During the Depression, Mrs. Roosevelt had a recepIn my childhood, I was a patient at Warm Springs.
tion every year for all the women of Meriwether County, This particular year the president listened to the
where Warm Springs was located. We children would
Harvard–Yale football game on the radio with the
watch the farm women coming down the dusty road, all
patients, staff and friends, including my father, Nat
in faded cotton dresses and poke bonnets, carrying their Brodsky, (Harvard class of ’14) who had come to visit
high-sided shoes. Before entering the Foundation, they
me. At the Thanksgiving dinner that year, the Roosevelts
would sit, dust off, and put on their shoes. Inside, Mrs.
invited us to sit at their table.
Roosevelt stood by a table with an assistant, shook
There were many young girls living in Warm Springs
everyone’s hand, and spoke to each woman as she passed while I was growing up, and Mrs. Roosevelt learned that
in the receiving line. This was peach country, and each
we had no schooling, library, radio, magazines, newspawoman brought the same gift: homemade preserves. Mrs. pers, and very few books. As titular head of the Girl
Roosevelt asked each woman her name and address and
Scouts of America, she took it upon herself to make us
wrote it on the label,
all Girl Scouts. She
repeating this informagot the handbooks
tion in her high, melofor us and even
dious voice to make
revised the merit
sure she had it right.
badge requirements
One year while I
so we all could earn
was walking on the
one. After weeks of
road, a lady stopped
working toward this
me and asked if I could
goal, we were
read. When I said yes,
rewarded by having
she handed me a letter
Mrs. Roosevelt put
from the White House.
the Girl Scout pins
It said, “Today the
on each of us, making
President and I enjoyed
us the first members
your peach preserves
of Troop One.
for breakfast.” It was
Eleanor Roosevelt’s
signed Eleanor
graciousness was an
Eleanor and Frankln celebrate Thanksgiving at the Warm Springs Foundation.
Roosevelt.
example to me all my life.
Note: Ms. Rushmore graduated from Ohio State in 1944 with a Bachelor of Science in chemistry. She also received a Masters degree, attended Emory
and Rutgers Universities, married, had three daughters, and now lives in Provincetown, MA. She would be happy to see or talk with any patients from
Warm Springs or those people interested in Mrs. Roosevelt. Write her at 605 Commercial Street, Provincetown MA 02657.