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

      

LOS ANGELES, Monday—The evening session at Indiana University last Friday night was held in a beautiful hall and was well attended. The following morning I enjoyed breakfasting at the Women's Faculty Club. Then I did a radio recording, some of the questions being used on the college hour, which is sold to 20 radio stations in the state.

Before leaving I stopped with President Herman B. Wells to see the president emeritus, William Lowe Brown, who lives on the campus. He is a remarkable gentleman, over 90 years old, an Indiana boy educated in the state and graduated from this university. He devoted many years of his life to the presidency, and the school owes to him many of its most forward-looking aspects. I left Bloomington with real regret and shall treasure pleasant memories of my time there.

We did not reach Chicago until late Saturday afternoon, so we had very little time to change before attending a dinner at the Covenant Club.

The president of the club presented me with a rather unique award—a prayer beautifully printed and bound which expressed good wishes for my future. I was deeply appreciative of this kind thought, and, truth to tell, I thought the prayer was what I needed more than anything else before going to talk on the United Nations at the Chicago Opera House. That building was built for opera and not for one poor, little speaker to stand up on the stage and look out at that vast auditorium.

The audience was attentive and kind, however, and we were even able to have a question period by having the questions written and allowing an interlude during which time representatives for the March of Dimes took up a collection.

At two o'clock Sunday morning we were on the plane, taking off in a light snowstorm. The winds were high and against us and I thought we might have a rough trip to Los Angeles.

For a little time we seemed to drive through the night and the snowstorm seemed heavier so that we were tossed around, but in a few minutes that was over and calm settled down. Next thing I know my eyes opened on snow-capped mountains and the dawn was breaking.

I always love the sky from an airplane at dawn and at sunrise. Of the two, I think it is more beautiful at dawn. The head winds had slowed us up considerably and so we were two and a half hours late. A fellow-passenger friend of Jimmy had introduced himself and offered to drive us in from the airport if no one should be on hand to meet us. But as we landed I saw my eldest son, Jimmy, standing by the gate.

Sunday was devoted entirely to my family except for a press conference at three o'clock when Herman Lissauer came to meet me and made final arrangements for my lecture this evening.

E. R.

(WORLD COPYRIGHT, 1950, BY UNITED FEATURE SYNDICATE, INC., REPRODUCTION IN WHOLE OR IN PART PROHIBITED.)


Names and Terms Mentioned or Referenced

Geographic
  • Los Angeles (Calif., United States) [ index ]


About this document

My Day by Eleanor Roosevelt, January 17, 1950

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

  • Brick, Christopher (Editor)
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  • Black, Allida M. (Editor)
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  • Binker, Mary Jo (Associate Editor)
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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 UFS wire copy of a My Day column instance archived at the Franklin D. Roosevelt Library.
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