Eleanor Roosevelt

Despite being born into a rich and prominent family, Anna Eleanor Roosevelt suffered an unhappy childhood after her parents and brother died at a young age. In 1905, after attending university in London, she returned to the U.S. and married her sixth cousin, Franklin D. Roosevelt, with whom she would have six children. After Eleanor’s husband contracted polio and became a paraplegic in 1921, she encouraged him to stay in politics, and he later became president in 1932. Eleanor was also active in politics, becoming one of the United Nations’ first delegates and chairing JFK’s Presidential Commission on the Status of Women. Roosevelt was the longest-serving First Lady and arguably the most influential.