Franklin Delano Roosevelt Jr. (August 17, 1914 – August 17, 1988) was an American lawyer, politician, and businessman. He served as a

United States congressman The United States House of Representatives, often referred to as the House of Representatives, the U.S. House, or simply the House, is the lower chamber of the United States Congress, with the Senate being the upper chamber. Together they ...

from New York from 1949 to 1955 and in 1963 was appointed

United States Under Secretary of Commerce A United States Under Secretary of Commerce is one of several positions in the United States Department of Commerce, serving under the United States Secretary of Commerce. History In June 1939, Edward J. Noble was appointed the first Under Secreta ...

by President John F. Kennedy. He was appointed as the first chairman of the

Equal Employment Opportunity Commission The U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) is a federal agency that was established via the Civil Rights Act of 1964 to administer and enforce civil rights laws against workplace discrimination. The EEOC investigates discrimination ...

from 1965 to 1966 by President Lyndon B. Johnson. Roosevelt also ran for governor of New York twice. He was a son of President

Franklin D. Roosevelt Franklin Delano Roosevelt (; ; January 30, 1882April 12, 1945), often referred to by his initials FDR, was an American politician and attorney who served as the 32nd president of the United States from 1933 until his death in 1945. As the ...

and First Lady

Eleanor Roosevelt Anna Eleanor Roosevelt () (October 11, 1884November 7, 1962) was an American political figure, diplomat, and activist. She was the first lady of the United States from 1933 to 1945, during her husband President Franklin D. Roosevelt's four ...

, and served as an officer in the

United States Navy The United States Navy (USN) is the maritime service branch of the United States Armed Forces and one of the eight uniformed services of the United States. It is the largest and most powerful navy in the world, with the estimated tonnage ...

during

World War II World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposing ...

Early life

Franklin Delano Roosevelt Jr. was born on August 17, 1914, the fifth of six children born to

(1882–1945) and

(1884–1962). At the time of his birth, his father was

Assistant Secretary of the Navy Assistant Secretary of the Navy (ASN) is the title given to certain civilian senior officials in the United States Department of the Navy. From 1861 to 1954, the Assistant Secretary of the Navy was the second-highest civilian office in the Depar ...

. He was born at his parents' summer home at

Campobello Island Campobello Island (, also ) is the largest and only inhabited island in Campobello, a civil parish in southwestern New Brunswick, Canada, near the border with Maine, United States. The island's permanent population in 2021 was 949. It is the s ...

New Brunswick New Brunswick (french: Nouveau-Brunswick, , locally ) is one of the thirteen provinces and territories of Canada. It is one of the three Maritime provinces and one of the four Atlantic provinces. It is the only province with both English and ...

, Canada, which is now an international historical park. His siblings were:

Anna Eleanor Roosevelt Anna Eleanor Roosevelt () (October 11, 1884November 7, 1962) was an American political figure, diplomat, and activist. She was the first lady of the United States from 1933 to 1945, during her husband President Franklin D. Roosevelt's four ...

(1906–1975), James Roosevelt II (1907–1991), Franklin Roosevelt (1909), a brother of the same name who died in infancy in November 1909, having lived only for seven months, Elliott Roosevelt (1910–1990), and John Aspinwall Roosevelt II (1916–1981). As a young man in 1936, he contracted a streptococcal throat infection and developed life-threatening complications. His successful treatment with

Prontosil Prontosil is an antibacterial drug of the sulfonamide group. It has a relatively broad effect against gram-positive cocci but not against enterobacteria. One of the earliest antimicrobial drugs, it was widely used in the mid-20th century but is ...

, the first commercially available sulfonamide drug, avoided a risky surgical procedure which the

White House The White House is the official residence and workplace of the president of the United States. It is located at 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue NW in Washington, D.C., and has been the residence of every U.S. president since John Adams in ...

medical staff had considered, and the subsequent headlines in ''

The New York Times ''The New York Times'' (''the Times'', ''NYT'', or the Gray Lady) is a daily newspaper based in New York City with a worldwide readership reported in 2020 to comprise a declining 840,000 paid print subscribers, and a growing 6 million paid d ...

'' and other prominent newspapers heralded the start of the era of antibacterial chemotherapy in the United States.

Education

He graduated from Groton School in 1933,

Harvard University Harvard University is a private Ivy League research university in Cambridge, Massachusetts. Founded in 1636 as Harvard College and named for its first benefactor, the Puritan clergyman John Harvard, it is the oldest institution of high ...

in 1937 (

A.B. Bachelor of arts (BA or AB; from the Latin ', ', or ') is a bachelor's degree awarded for an undergraduate program in the arts, or, in some cases, other disciplines. A Bachelor of Arts degree course is generally completed in three or four yea ...

), and the University of Virginia School of Law (

LL.B. Bachelor of Laws ( la, Legum Baccalaureus; LL.B.) is an undergraduate law degree in the United Kingdom and most common law jurisdictions. Bachelor of Laws is also the name of the law degree awarded by universities in the People's Republic of Chi ...

) in June 1940. The family thought that FDR Jr. was the one most like his father in appearance and behavior. James said, "Franklin is the one who came closest to being another FDR. He had father's looks, his speaking voice, his smile, his charm, his charisma."

U.S. Navy service

Elliot Roosevelt and FDR Jr - NARA - 195327

World War II

Roosevelt was commissioned an

ensign An ensign is the national flag flown on a vessel to indicate nationality. The ensign is the largest flag, generally flown at the stern (rear) of the ship while in port. The naval ensign (also known as war ensign), used on warships, may be diffe ...

in the

United States Navy Reserve The United States Navy Reserve (USNR), known as the United States Naval Reserve from 1915 to 2005, is the Reserve Component (RC) of the United States Navy. Members of the Navy Reserve, called Reservists, are categorized as being in either the Se ...

on June 11, 1940. He was a junior naval officer in

and was decorated for bravery in the

Naval Battle of Casablanca The Naval Battle of Casablanca was a series of naval engagements fought between American ships covering the invasion of North Africa and Vichy French ships defending the neutrality of French Morocco in accordance with the Second Armistice at C ...

. At the request of his father, along with brother Elliott Roosevelt, he attended both the

Argentia Argentia ( ) is a Canadian commercial seaport and industrial park located in the Town of Placentia, Newfoundland and Labrador. It is situated on the southwest coast of the Avalon Peninsula and defined by a triangular shaped headland which r ...

( Atlantic Charter) summit with Prime Minister

Winston Churchill Sir Winston Leonard Spencer Churchill (30 November 187424 January 1965) was a British statesman, soldier, and writer who served as Prime Minister of the United Kingdom twice, from 1940 to 1945 during the Second World War, and again from ...

in August 1941, and the

Casablanca Conference The Casablanca Conference (codenamed SYMBOL) or Anfa Conference was held at the Anfa Hotel in Casablanca, French Morocco, from January 14 to 24, 1943, to plan the Allied European strategy for the next phase of World War II. In attendance were ...

in January 1943. Franklin also met FDR in Africa prior to the

Tehran Conference The Tehran Conference ( codenamed Eureka) was a strategy meeting of Joseph Stalin, Franklin Roosevelt, and Winston Churchill from 28 November to 1 December 1943, after the Anglo-Soviet invasion of Iran. It was held in the Soviet Union's embass ...

. Returning from Argentia, he sailed with Churchill and stood with him at parades in newly American-occupied Reykjavik,

Iceland Iceland ( is, Ísland; ) is a Nordic island country in the North Atlantic Ocean and in the Arctic Ocean. Iceland is the most sparsely populated country in Europe. Iceland's capital and largest city is Reykjavík, which (along with its s ...

, to symbolize American solidarity with the

United Kingdom The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, commonly known as the United Kingdom (UK) or Britain, is a country in Europe, off the north-western coast of the European mainland, continental mainland. It comprises England, Scotlan ...

. Brother

James Roosevelt James Roosevelt II (December 23, 1907 – August 13, 1991) was an American businessman, Marine, activist, and Democratic Party politician. The eldest son of President Franklin D. Roosevelt and Eleanor Roosevelt, he served as an official Secr ...

summarized "Brud's" naval service: "Franklin served on a destroyer that dodged torpedoes from Iceland to Minsk ic! He became executive officer of the destroyer , which was bombed at Palermo in the Sicilian invasion. The famed war correspondent

Quentin Reynolds Quentin James Reynolds (April 11, 1902 – March 17, 1965) was an American journalist and World War II war correspondent. He also played American football for one season in the National Football League (NFL) with the Brooklyn Lions. Early life ...

went out of his way to write mother how bravely Franklin performed in that bloody ordeal, in which he was awarded the

Silver Star Medal The Silver Star Medal (SSM) is the United States Armed Forces' third-highest military decoration for valor in combat. The Silver Star Medal is awarded primarily to members of the United States Armed Forces for gallantry in action against an en ...

for exposing himself under fire to carry a critically wounded sailor to safety." Later, as a

lieutenant commander Lieutenant commander (also hyphenated lieutenant-commander and abbreviated Lt Cdr, LtCdr. or LCDR) is a commissioned officer rank in many navies. The rank is superior to a lieutenant and subordinate to a commander. The corresponding ran ...

, to which he was promoted to on March 1, 1944, Franklin became the commanding officer of the

destroyer escort Destroyer escort (DE) was the United States Navy mid-20th-century classification for a warship designed with the endurance necessary to escort mid-ocean convoys of merchant marine ships. Development of the destroyer escort was promoted by th ...

on July 18, 1944. ''Ulvert M. Moore'' served in the

Pacific The Pacific Ocean is the largest and deepest of Earth's five oceanic divisions. It extends from the Arctic Ocean in the north to the Southern Ocean (or, depending on definition, to Antarctica) in the south, and is bounded by the contine ...

and shot down two Japanese aircraft and sank the

Imperial Japanese Navy The Imperial Japanese Navy (IJN; Kyūjitai: Shinjitai: ' 'Navy of the Greater Japanese Empire', or ''Nippon Kaigun'', 'Japanese Navy') was the navy of the Empire of Japan from 1868 to 1945, when it was dissolved following Japan's surrend ...

submarine . The ship was in Tokyo Bay when Japan formally surrendered on September 2, 1945. James Roosevelt remembered that his brother was known as "Big Moose" to the men who served under him, he did "a tremendous job".

Military awards

Roosevelt's military decorations and awards include:

Career

Law practice

Roosevelt served in several New York law offices after the war. He was senior partner in the New York law firm of Roosevelt and Frieden, later known as Poletti, Diamond, Frieden & Mackay, before and after his service in the Congress. (On December 3, 1945, ''

Time Time is the continued sequence of existence and events that occurs in an apparently irreversible succession from the past, through the present, into the future. It is a component quantity of various measurements used to sequence events, ...

'' magazine announced that Roosevelt had joined Poletti, Diamond, Rabin, Frieden & Mackay.) He triggered controversy for representing Dominican dictator Rafael Trujillo in the U.S., and dropped the account before Trujillo's assassination in 1961.

Politics

Roosevelt was also involved in political affairs. He served on the

President's Committee on Civil Rights The President's Committee on Civil Rights was a United States presidential commission established by President Harry Truman in 1946. The committee was created by Executive Order 9808 on December 5, 1946, and instructed to investigate the status o ...

in 1946 for President

Harry Truman Harry S. Truman (May 8, 1884December 26, 1972) was the 33rd president of the United States, serving from 1945 to 1953. A leader of the Democratic Party, he previously served as the 34th vice president from January to April 1945 under Franklin ...

. Along with his brothers, he declared for

Dwight D. Eisenhower Dwight David "Ike" Eisenhower (born David Dwight Eisenhower; ; October 14, 1890 – March 28, 1969) was an American military officer and statesman who served as the 34th president of the United States from 1953 to 1961. During World War II, ...

in 1948, as part of the draft Eisenhower movement. He joined the Empire State Society of the

Sons of the American Revolution The National Society of the Sons of the American Revolution (SAR or NSSAR) is an American congressionally chartered organization, founded in 1889 and headquartered in Louisville, Kentucky. A non-profit corporation, it has described its purpose ...

in 1946.

U.S. House of Representatives

Roosevelt Jr. was elected as a member of the

United States House of Representatives The United States House of Representatives, often referred to as the House of Representatives, the U.S. House, or simply the House, is the lower chamber of the United States Congress, with the Senate being the upper chamber. Together they ...

in a special election in 1949, in which he ran as a candidate of the Liberal Party of New York. He was re-elected in 1950 and 1952 as a Democrat. He represented the 20th District of New York from May 17, 1949, until January 3, 1955, then based in the

Upper West Side The Upper West Side (UWS) is a neighborhood in the borough of Manhattan in New York City. It is bounded by Central Park on the east, the Hudson River on the west, West 59th Street to the south, and West 110th Street to the north. The Upper West ...

of Manhattan. Despite his name and connections, he became unpopular with the Democratic leadership. When brother

was elected to the House, Speaker Sam Rayburn told him to "not waste our time like your brother did." James wrote that Franklin "had a dreadful record in Congress. He was smart, but not smart enough. He had good ideas and the power of persuasion, but he did not put them to good use. He coasted instead of working at his job, considering it beneath him, while he aimed for higher positions. He may have had the worst attendance record of any member of those days, and it cost him those higher positions."

Seeking the governorship of New York

Roosevelt sought the Democratic nomination for governor in 1954, but, after persuasion by powerful

Tammany Hall Tammany Hall, also known as the Society of St. Tammany, the Sons of St. Tammany, or the Columbian Order, was a New York City political organization founded in 1786 and incorporated on May 12, 1789 as the Tammany Society. It became the main loc ...

boss

Carmine DeSapio Carmine Gerard DeSapio (December 10, 1908 – July 27, 2004) was an American politician from New York City. He was the last head of the Tammany Hall political machine to dominate municipal politics. Early life and career DeSapio was born in ...

, abandoned his bid for Governor and was nominated by the Democratic State Convention to run for

New York State Attorney General The attorney general of New York is the chief legal officer of the U.S. state of New York and head of the Department of Law of the state government. The office has been in existence in some form since 1626, under the Dutch colonial government o ...

. Roosevelt was defeated in the general election by Republican Jacob K. Javits, although all other Democratic nominees were elected. Following his loss, Eleanor Roosevelt began building a campaign against the Tammany Hall leader that eventually forced DeSapio to step down from power in 1961. He again ran for Governor of New York on the Liberal Party ticket in 1966, but was defeated by the incumbent Republican Nelson A. Rockefeller.

Ties to John F. Kennedy

At the instigation of

Joseph P. Kennedy Sr. Joseph Patrick Kennedy (September 6, 1888 – November 18, 1969) was an American businessman, investor, and politician. He is known for his own political prominence as well as that of his children and was the patriarch of the Irish-American Ke ...

, he campaigned for

John F. Kennedy John Fitzgerald Kennedy (May 29, 1917 – November 22, 1963), often referred to by his initials JFK and the nickname Jack, was an American politician who served as the 35th president of the United States from 1961 until his assassination ...

in the crucial 1960

West Virginia West Virginia is a state in the Appalachian, Mid-Atlantic and Southeastern regions of the United States.The Census Bureau and the Association of American Geographers classify West Virginia as part of the Southern United States while the B ...

primary, falsely accusing Kennedy's opponent,

Hubert Humphrey Hubert Horatio Humphrey Jr. (May 27, 1911 – January 13, 1978) was an American pharmacist and politician who served as the 38th vice president of the United States from 1965 to 1969. He twice served in the United States Senate, representing Mi ...

, of having dodged the draft in World War II. Kennedy later named him Under Secretary of Commerce and chairman of the President's Appalachian Regional Commission. The Commerce post was given to him when Defense Secretary

Robert McNamara Robert Strange McNamara (; June 9, 1916 – July 6, 2009) was an American business executive and the eighth United States Secretary of Defense, serving from 1961 to 1968 under Presidents John F. Kennedy and Lyndon B. Johnson. He remains the ...

vetoed his appointment as Secretary of the Navy. "JFK and Franklin were friends and their families were close. Socially, Franklin spent a lot of time in the White House during JFK's reign. But when Kennedy was killed, Franklin fell from power." He served as chairman of the

from May 26, 1965, to May 11, 1966, during the administration of Kennedy's successor, President

Lyndon B. Johnson Lyndon Baines Johnson (; August 27, 1908January 22, 1973), often referred to by his initials LBJ, was an American politician who served as the 36th president of the United States from 1963 to 1969. He had previously served as the 37th vice ...

Entrepreneur

Roosevelt was also a distributor of FIAT and Jaguar automobiles in the United States. In 1970, he sold the distributorship Roosevelt Automobile Company. He was a personal friend of Fiat chairman

Gianni Agnelli Giovanni "Gianni" Agnelli (; 12 March 192124 January 2003), nicknamed ("The Lawyer"), was an Italian industrialist and principal shareholder of Fiat. As the head of Fiat, he controlled 4.4% of Italy's GDP, 3.1% of its industrial workforce a ...

. He also ran a small

cattle Cattle (''Bos taurus'') are large, domesticated, cloven-hooved, herbivores. They are a prominent modern member of the subfamily Bovinae and the most widespread species of the genus ''Bos''. Adult females are referred to as cows and adult ma ...

farm and had an interest in

Thoroughbred The Thoroughbred is a horse breed best known for its use in horse racing. Although the word ''thoroughbred'' is sometimes used to refer to any breed of purebred horse, it technically refers only to the Thoroughbred breed. Thoroughbreds are ...

racehorses. In 1983 he bred the colt Brothers N Law. A winner at age two, the New York-bred ran second in the 1986 Empire Stakes hosted that year by the

Saratoga Race Course Saratoga Race Course is a Thoroughbred horse racing track located on Union Avenue in Saratoga Springs, New York, United States. Opened in 1863, it is often considered to be the oldest major sporting venue of any kind in the country, but is actu ...

Personal life and death

On June 30, 1937, Roosevelt married the first of his eventual five wives, Ethel du Pont (1916–1965) of the

du Pont family The du Pont family () or Du Pont family is a prominent American family descended from Pierre Samuel du Pont de Nemours (1739–1817). It has been one of the richest families in the United States since the mid-19th century, when it founded its f ...

. Before their subsequent separation and divorce on May 21, 1949, they had two sons,

Franklin Delano Roosevelt III Franklin Delano Roosevelt III (born July 19, 1938) is an American retired economist and academic. Through his father, he is a grandson of 32nd U.S. president Franklin D. Roosevelt and Eleanor Roosevelt, and through his mother, he is related to t ...

(born July 19, 1938) and Christopher du Pont Roosevelt (born December 21, 1941). On August 31, 1949, Roosevelt married for the second time to Suzanne Perrin (born May 2, 1921), the daughter of Lee James Perrin, a New York attorney. They had two daughters before their divorce in 1970, which was obtained in Juárez, Mexico: Nancy Suzanne Roosevelt (born January 11, 1952), who married Thomas Ellis Ireland, grandson of Robert Livingston Ireland Jr. in 1977, and Laura Delano Roosevelt (born October 26, 1959). On July 1, 1970, Roosevelt married for the third time to Felicia Schiff Warburg Sarnoff (born 1927). She was the granddaughter of Felix M. Warburg (1871–1937) and great‐granddaughter of

Jacob Schiff Jacob (; ; ar, يَعْقُوب, Yaʿqūb; gr, Ἰακώβ, Iakṓb), later given the name Israel, is regarded as a patriarch of the Israelites and is an important figure in Abrahamic religions, such as Judaism, Christianity, and Islam. Ja ...

(1847–1920). She had been previously married to

Robert W. Sarnoff Robert W. Sarnoff (July 2, 1918 – February 23, 1997) was an American businessman best known as the chief executive officer and chairman of the board of Radio Corporation of America (RCA) after assuming those positions on the retirement of his ...

, chairman and president of the

RCA Corporation The RCA Corporation was a major American electronics company, which was founded as the Radio Corporation of America in 1919. It was initially a patent trust owned by General Electric (GE), Westinghouse, AT&T Corporation and United Fruit Comp ...

. The marriage was childless and ended in divorce in 1976. On May 6, 1977, Roosevelt married for the fourth time to Patricia Luisa Oakes (born 1951), the daughter of British actor

Richard Greene Richard Marius Joseph Greene (25 August 1918 – 1 June 1985) was a noted English film and television actor. A matinée idol who appeared in more than 40 films, he was perhaps best known for the lead role in the long-running British TV series ' ...

(1918–1985) and Nancy Oakes von Hoyningen-Huene (1924–2005), and the granddaughter of gold mining tycoon

Sir Harry Oakes Sir Harry Oakes, 1st Baronet (23 December 1874 – 7 July 1943) was a British gold mine owner, entrepreneur, investor and philanthropist. He earned his fortune in Canada and moved to the Bahamas in the 1930s for tax purposes. Though American by b ...

(1874–1943). They had one son before divorcing in 1981: John Alexander Roosevelt (born October 18, 1977).(FDR Presidential Library) On March 3, 1984, Roosevelt married his fifth and final wife, Linda McKay "Tobie" Stevenson Weicker (born 1939). She was previously married to Theodore M. Weicker, the brother of

Connecticut Governor The governor of Connecticut is the head of government of Connecticut, and the commander-in-chief of the state's military forces. The governor has a duty to enforce state laws, and the power to either approve or veto bills passed by the Connecticu ...

Lowell P. Weicker Jr. They remained married until his death. On August 17, 1988, his 74th birthday, Franklin Delano Roosevelt Jr. died at Vassar Brothers Hospital in

Poughkeepsie, New York Poughkeepsie ( ), officially the City of Poughkeepsie, separate from the Town of Poughkeepsie around it) is a city in the U.S. state of New York. It is the county seat of Dutchess County, with a 2020 census population of 31,577. Poughkeepsi ...

, after a battle with

lung cancer Lung cancer, also known as lung carcinoma (since about 98–99% of all lung cancers are carcinomas), is a malignant lung tumor characterized by uncontrolled cell growth in tissues of the lung. Lung carcinomas derive from transformed, malign ...

References

Citations

Sources

* Retrieved on 2009-5-19 * Roosevelt, James: ''My Parents: A Differing View'', Playboy Press, 1976 (with

Bill Libby William Melvin "Bill" Libby (November 14, 1927 – June 17, 1984) was an American writer and biographer best known for books on sports including 65 on sports figures. Early years Libby graduated from Shortridge High School in Indianapolis, also at ...

) * Hansen, Chris: ''Enfant Terrible: The Times and Schemes of General Elliott Roosevelt'', Able Baker Press, 2012.

External links

* * * {{DEFAULTSORT:Roosevelt, Franklin Delano Jr. 1914 births 1988 deaths 20th-century American lawyers 20th-century American politicians United States Navy personnel of World War II 20th-century American businesspeople American racehorse owners and breeders American people of Dutch descent American people of Scottish descent Bulloch family Chairs of the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission Children of presidents of the United States Deaths from lung cancer in New York (state) Delano family Democratic Party members of the United States House of Representatives from New York (state) Du Pont family Franklin D. Roosevelt Groton School alumni Harvard University alumni Liberal Party of New York members of the United States House of Representatives Liberal Party of New York politicians United States Under Secretaries of Commerce Livingston family New York (state) lawyers People from Grand Manan Recipients of the Silver Star Franklin Schuyler family University of Virginia School of Law alumni Eleanor Roosevelt Military personnel from New York (state) People from Millbrook, New York United States Navy officers United States Navy reservists