Q: Summarize the children's troubles in their later years, and tell why it was so hard for them.
A: The children of Eleanor and Franklin Roosevelt certainly had many troubles in their lives. Many of them were married several times, and they had scattered families. And I think it was very difficult for them, as the children not just of the president of the United States but of Eleanor Roosevelt as well. They sort of had a double whammy, because my grandmother was prominent and history will put her down as one of the greatest women who ever lived, I believe. So I think it was very difficult for them. I know for my father, who was the youngest, it was difficult because when he was a young boy, his parents were so busy that they weren't able to spend a lot of time with him. So he grew up pretty much on his own. And then as an adult, he had many people who tried to get him to come into one business scheme or another because they thought that it would lend credence if they had a Roosevelt name attached to the business. And unless you're pretty sophisticated, you know, you get all excited about those kinds of things. And my father was fortunate in that he didn't get involved in very many of those kinds of things, and he worked his way up the ladder. He started in the basement of Filene's Department Store, and then continued until he eventually became an investment banker. So in a sense, he was lucky. And I think Uncle Franklin also. He had a wonderful career, but I think for some of the others, it was very difficult to know who they were in relationship to their parents, to their own families, and to the people that were perhaps not always scrupulously trying to use them.
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