The Eleanor Roosevelt Papers, Digital Edition > My Day
My Day by Eleanor Roosevelt

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A military funeral is always very impressive to me, and the little church of St. John, across Lafayette Square from the White House is small enough to give one a peculiarly intimate feeling. The service for the Assistant Secretary of the Navy was very beautiful, and then we followed in the long, slow moving procession across the bridge and into Arlington Cemetary . Mr. Roosevelt was a Colonel in the Marine Corps as well as the Assistant Secretary of the Navy so he was doubly entitled to military honors. The spot chosen by his family for his grave has a beautiful outlook over Washington. Time and time again have I stood in that cemetary since the days of the World War and never can I hear the salute fired and the bugle blowing taps without seeing like a flash, all these little groups of sorrowing people standing by an open grave. There is a kinship among them all and a consolation for them all in that their loved ones have all made some contribution to their country.

My husband and I drove back across the bridge with his two aides, up to the South door of the White House and he went back to work, for work must go on and perhaps that is a saving grace for all those who grieve—always there is work to be done.

I went to lunch with Mrs. Morgenthau and returned to see a young writer of children's books, Miss Marian King, who brought me a charming Dutch story which is soon to appear in book form, and who urged me to come and speak at a boys' school. This is the second invitation of this kind I've had of late and I only wish I could accept for there is nothing I like better than the give and take of talk in a school library or study but days do fill up!

After this conversation, I presented a cup to a high school girl, Miss Lou Dillon from Jefferson, Missouri, who won the cherry pie baking contest for this year. The usher who took me down to present this cup, remarked: "I'm sure she can't make as good a cherry pie as my mother."

The inevitable remark of every man!

E.R.


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About this document

My Day by Eleanor Roosevelt, February 26, 1936

Roosevelt, Eleanor, 1884-1962
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Digital edition created by The Eleanor Roosevelt Papers Project The George Washington University 312 Academic Building 2100 Foxhall Road, NW Washington, DC 20007

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Digital edition published 2008, 2017 by
The Eleanor Roosevelt Papers Project

Available under licence from the Estate of Anna Eleanor Roosevelt.

Published with permission from the Estate of Anna Eleanor Roosevelt.

MEP edition publlished on June 30, 2008.

TEI-P5 edition published on April 28, 2017.

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Transcription created from a photocopy of a draft version of a My Day column instance archived at the Franklin D. Roosevelt Library. My Day column draft dated February 25, 1936, FDR Library, Hyde Park, NY
TMsd, 25 February 1936, AERP, FDRL