FDR - Jean Edward Smith [155]
Eleanor always kept a room for Earl at Val-Kill and later in her apartment in Greenwich Village. Whether they were more than good friends is open to conjecture. Marion Dickerman and Nancy Cook were distressed at their public display of affection.58 Joseph Lash records their love (“He interested her physically”) but doubts if it were more than an emotional attachment.59 Blanche Wiesen Cook calls Miller ER’s “first romantic involvement” of her middle years but declines to speculate further. “Whatever rules they agreed upon, they were two mutually consenting adults who were engaged in a discreet relationship.… [T]hey did whatever they agreed to do.”60 James Roosevelt, who may have had the best opportunity to judge, believed that Lash was overly protective of ER’s reputation. “I believe this is a disservice to her, a suggestion that because of her hang-ups she was never able to be a complete woman.” According to James:
Mother was self-conscious about Miller’s youth, but he did not seem bothered by the difference in years. He encouraged her to take pride in herself, to be herself, to be unafraid of facing the world. He did a lot of good for her. She seemed to draw strength from him when he was by her side, and she came to rely on him. When she had problems, she sought his help.… He became part of the family, too, and gave her a great deal of what her husband and we, her sons, failed to give her. Above all, he made her feel that she was a woman.… From my observations, I personally believe they were more than friends.61
This remarkable relationship, which commenced in 1929, continued until Eleanor’s death in 1962. Yet the trail is largely unmarked.62 There are photographs and a few home movies, but no diaries or letters despite the fact that she and Earl are believed to have corresponded almost daily.63 Rumors persist that shortly after Eleanor’s death the letters were anonymously purchased and destroyed, or purchased and locked away. To date, not a single letter from ER to Earl Miller has surfaced.64*
Eleanor’s friendship with Miller paralleled Franklin’s relationship with Missy LeHand. Just as Missy provided FDR with the adoration and love his wife could not, so Miller made up for what Franklin could not give. Remarkably, both ER and Franklin recognized, accepted, and encouraged the arrangement. Missy and Earl became members of the family. Eleanor gave Missy the larger bedroom near FDR’s in Albany while she took a smaller one down the hall, and Franklin was equally attentive to Earl’s requirements. Eleanor and Franklin were strong-willed people who cared greatly for each other’s happiness but realized their own inability to provide for it.
* The Democrats nominated Horatio Seymour in 1868; Horace Greeley in 1872; Samuel Tilden in 1876; Grover Cleveland in 1884, 1888, and 1892; Alton B. Parker in 1904; and Al Smith in 1928.
* In 1934 Moses departed the party of his patron to run for governor as a Republican. He was trounced by Herbert Lehman, 2,201,727–1,393,744. Congressional Quarterly, Guide to U.S. Elections 423 (Washington, D.C.: Congressional Quarterly, 1975).
* For her part, Eleanor Roosevelt distrusted both Belle Moskowitz and Robert Moses, whom she considered stalking horses for Smith. One week after the election she wrote FDR, “By all signs I think Belle and Bob Moses mean to cling to you and you will wake up and find R. M. Secretary of State and