Franklin Delano Roosevelt, or simply FDR as he was and still is fondly referred to, was the thirty-second President of the United States. Roosevelt was elected in 1932 and served an unprecedented four terms before his death in office in 1945. Although Roosevelt is memorialized for numerous contributions to his country and the health adversities he overcame, many people remember him as the man that led the country out of the Great Depression and the Second World War.
Franklin Delano Roosevelt was an only child born into an upper-class family in New York in 1882. Related to former President Theodore Roosevelt, Franklin Roosevelt entered politics through public service shortly after attending Harvard and Columbia Universities. FDR won the New York State Senate in 1910 and was a Democratic nominee for Vice President in 1920.
The following summer, Roosevelt contracted polio. He battled the debilitating disease with the support of his wife, Anna Eleanor Roosevelt. As FDR’s condition improved, humanitarian efforts took precedence to his political efforts. Roosevelt had witnessed the difficulty many people had affording good medical care and he subsequently founded a polio rehabilitation center in Warm Springs, Georgia where he would later spend the final days of his life.
Roosevelt’s political career rebounded on the heels of his recovery. He became the governor of New York in 1928 and then won the presidential election in 1932, in the midst of the Great Depression. The country looked to the man whose famous line, “the only thing we have to fear is fear itself”, has lingered long since his term expired. Roosevelt took economic measures to help the country regain its footing and though big business feared his experimental policies, the country reelected Roosevelt three more times.
Shortly after his fourth term began, Roosevelt’s health was again compromised. Franklin Delano Roosevelt died of a brain hemorrhage in Warm Springs on April 12, 1945 at 63 years of age. Vice President Harry Truman took over the Oval Office for the remainder of his term.