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Eleanor Roosevelt 's Life Of Wealth And Privilege

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“Plain, ordinary Mrs. Roosevelt” Eleanor Roosevelt was born in 1884 in New York City to socialites Elliot Bulloch Roosevelt and Anna Rebecca Hall. She was born into a world of immense wealth and privilege that she didn’t really fit into or understand. Her mother died in 1892 and after a long battle with alcoholism, her father leapt to his death from a sanitarium window in 1894. After so much death at a young age, Eleanor was prone to bouts of melancholy and depression throughout her life. After the death of her parents, Eleanor was raised by her maternal grandmother and tutored privately in her home. At the age of fifteen she entered a private finishing school, Allenswood Academy, outside of London, England from 1899-1902. The headmistress, Marie Souvestre was a noted feminist educator who sought to cultivate independent thinking in young women. Souvestre took a special interest in Eleanor and encouraged her self -confidence. When she returned to the United States Eleanor encountered her father’s fifth cousin Franklin Delano Roosevelt on a train to Tivoli, New York. They began a secret correspondence and romance. Although opposed by his mother, the couple became engaged in November 1903 and married in March 1905. Eleanor had a combative relationship with her controlling mother-in-law and wasn’t comfortable in her married life or motherhood. After discovering that her husband was having an affair and contemplating leaving her, Eleanor pulled away from her family even

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