Q: What do you think Franklin saw in her that attracted him?
A: I think Franklin Roosevelt saw a young woman that he knew he was related to. He
knew that he'd met her years before, but he really didn't know her. And when they were in
their late teens, and my grandmother was going through the debutante part of her life, they
re-met at social events, at dances, balls. And Franklin Roosevelt apparently was fascinated
by the fact that this was a woman who was seeing things that he had never seen in his own back
yard. This was a woman who thought about things, who had opinions, who had developed an
intellect, was well read and wasn't afraid to talk about her opinions and her feelings about
the books or whatever that she had read. And this was quite uncommon for many of the young
women that FDR had known. So she was kind of different. And I think she was very lovely. I
don't see her as the ugly duckling at all. And I'm sure he didn't either. She wasn't the light,
funny, socialite that people expected he would be interested in. But I think there was a piece of
FDR, a very large piece, that was far more interested in the realities of life and in what was
going on around him. And so meeting my grandmother, I think he became very attracted to this
woman who was so different.
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