Anna Roosevelt Halsted

Anna Eleanor Roosevelt Halsted (May 3, 1906 – December 1, 1975), née Anna Eleanor Roosevelt, also Anna Dall and Anna Boettiger in earlier marriages, was the first child of Anna Eleanor Roosevelt and Franklin Delano Roosevelt. She was named for her mother and grandmother, Anna Roosevelt and was usually called Anna or Sis.

Biography

Anna Eleanor Roosevelt was born at 125 E. 36th St. in New York City. Caught in a triad of three strong willed people — her mother, father, and grandmother, the domineering Sara Roosevelt — young Anna Eleanor had to grow up quickly. Anna's father later became the 32nd U.S. president, her mother the famous first lady. After her 1924 graduation from Miss Chapin's school (now the Chapin School), she attended a short course at Cornell University in the forestry school. She was married for the first time, in Hyde Park, New York, in 1926 to stockbroker Curtis Bean Dall. They had two children: Anna Eleanor Roosevelt, usually known as "Sisty" on March 25, 1927, and Curtis Roosevelt on April 19, 1930.

Between 1932 and 1934, Anna was associate editor of a magazine called Babies Just Babies ( her mother Eleanor also had ties to this publication); hosted a radio program sponsored by the Best and Company Department Store; contributed articles to Liberty magazine; and wrote two children's books, "Scamper" and "Scamper's Christmas".

"Mrs. Dall was divorced from her first husband, Curtis B. Dall, July 30, at Minden, Nev." ("Syracuse Herald", Jan 18, 1935, p 11) Six months after her divorce, on Jan 18, 1935, she married 34-year-old journalist (Clarence) John Boettiger. Her second husband had recently resigned from the "Chicago Tribune", and signed on with the Will H. Hays organization, the Motion Picture Producers of America.

John Boettiger, was hired by William R. Hearst to take over as publisher of the Seattle Post-Intelligencer, following a bitter labor dispute with its employees in 1936. Anna was active as a writer and journalist, and she served as editor of the woman's page of that newspaper from 1936 until 1943. With her second husband, she had a son, John Roosevelt Boettiger on March 30, 1939. When John went to serve in the war, new management conflicted with Anna and she left the paper as well.

In 1944, at her father's request, Anna moved into the White House to serve as an assistant to the President and as White House hostess during her mother's frequent absences. Anna, who accompanied her father on the trip to Yalta, was a witness to many historic moments, but she also carried the burden of dealing with some of the most intimate and painful decisions of her parents during their dysfunctional marriage.

Anna and John divorced in 1949, and he committed suicide the following year. She married Dr. James Addison Halsted on November 11, 1952. Anna devoted much of her later life to problems of education and to carrying on many of her mother's interests and philanthropies. She was an active supporter of the Franklin D. Roosevelt Presidential Library and Museum.

She died of throat cancer at the age of 69, in New York City and is interred at Hyde Park, New York.

Further reading

*The Franklin D Roosevelt Library at NARA has recently "...received correspondence between Curtis B. Dall, Anna Roosevelt's first husband, and the Roosevelt family, donated by his daughter Mary Dall Twichell...." [ [http://www.archives.gov/research/accessions/ 4th Quarter 2007 ] ]
*The New York State Archives has 34 linear feet of the Anna Roosevelt papers. [http://www.archives.nysed.gov/a/researchroom/rr_health_mh_recguide.shtml]

Notes

Resources

* [http://www.nps.gov/elro/glossary/halstead-anna.htm National Park Service bio]
*"Syracuse Herald", Jan 18, 1935. p 11 "Anna Dall marries"

External links

* [http://www.thecemeteryproject.com/Graves%202/roosevelt-halsted-anna.htm the Cemetery Project]