25 Facts About Marguerite LeHand

Marguerite Alice "Missy" LeHand was a private secretary to US President Franklin D Roosevelt for 21 years.

Marguerite LeHand remained his secretary when he became governor of New York in 1929 and when he became president in 1933, serving until a 1941 stroke left her partially paralyzed and barely able to speak.

Marguerite LeHand moved to her sister's home in Somerville, Massachusetts, and died after another stroke in 1944.

Marguerite LeHand, who were the children of Irish immigrants.

When she was a young child, the family relocated to Somerville, a working class suburb of Boston, where Marguerite LeHand was struck by rheumatic fever at age fifteen.

Marguerite LeHand graduated from Somerville High School in 1917, where she took secretarial courses in preparation for a career.

Marguerite LeHand was modest, well mannered, exceptionally capable, and thoroughly organized.

Marguerite LeHand quickly became a key part of Roosevelt's staff, managing his correspondence and appointment calendar.

Marguerite LeHand was nicknamed "Missy" by Roosevelt's younger children, who had a hard time negotiating "Miss LeHand" and soon became popularly known by this name.

Marguerite LeHand accompanied him to the spa town of Warm Springs, Georgia, in 1924, overseeing and encouraging his physical therapy.

That spring, Marguerite LeHand suffered what she described as a "heart attack" while swimming in the pool at Warm Springs.

Marguerite LeHand was treated for resulting atrial fibrilation with digitalis, which provoked a toxic reaction and mental confusion.

Marguerite LeHand enthusiastically learned to play poker and spent hours working with him on his stamp collection.

Marguerite LeHand even adopted his figures of speech and favorite drinks.

Marguerite LeHand accompanied the Roosevelts to the White House, where she became the first woman to serve as a presidential secretary and the only female member of the four-person "secretariat" that managed the West Wing.

Marguerite LeHand appeared on the cover of Time magazine in December 1934, one of just three women to grace a Time cover that year.

Marguerite LeHand had a brief romance with Eleanor's bodyguard Earl Miller in 1931.

In 1933, Marguerite LeHand began to date the diplomat William Christian Bullitt Jr.

In June 1941, Marguerite LeHand collapsed at a White House dinner party, and two weeks later, she suffered a major stroke that left her partially paralyzed with little speech function.

Marguerite LeHand became critical of FDR's leadership for the first time that spring, sharing her disappointment with Interior Secretary Harold L Ickes, a close friend.

Marguerite LeHand was very unhappy in Warm Springs and may have tried to kill herself by eating chicken bones during the 1941 Christmas season.

Grace Tully, an assistant of Marguerite LeHand, took over as Roosevelt's secretary, but was never a companion for Roosevelt in the same way as Marguerite LeHand had been.

When Marguerite LeHand died on July 31,1944, the president issued a statement:.

Marguerite LeHand was a character in the 1958 Broadway play Sunrise at Campobello and its 1960 film adaptation, in which she was played by Jean Hagen.

Marguerite LeHand had a brief appearance in the 2005 HBO movie Warm Springs, which is about the creation of the polio rehabilitation center there and FDR's return to politics.