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By STEPHANIE BOMBAY [email protected]
Sunday, July 30, 2000 Page: 1B
Numerous political figures have made their way through the Wyoming Valley
over the years – usually offering support and aid after natural disasters or
while searching for support during election time.
When Eleanor Roosevelt visited this area, she had a different agenda.
Roosevelt, one of the nation’s most renowned first ladies, made several
visits to the area between 1948 and 1958 to honor others, receive accolades
and share her beliefs.
On July 31, 1948, Roosevelt visited Sugar Notch to honor the community’s
war heroes and her late husband, President Franklin Delano Roosevelt.
She began her journey to the Wyoming Valley from her Hyde Park, N.Y., home.
Attorney Daniel J. Flood, later a congressman, and M.J. McLaughlin Sr. drove
to Stroudsburg to escort the former first lady to Wilkes-Barre, according to
the Aug. 2, 1948, edition of the Wilkes-Barre Record.
A state police detail joined the convoy from the Bear Creek area to the
Sterling Hotel in Wilkes-Barre.
The day was an emotional one for Roosevelt, the newspaper account stated:
“Surprise and sadness were registered by Mrs. Roosevelt when she saw for
the first time the 10-year-old Packard touring car used to carry her from the
hotel to Sugar Notch.”
The vehicle had been used by the president and his wife in parades and for
state functions. John A. Riley, Luzerne County commissioner at the time and
chairman of the unveiling program, procured the automobile from state Sen.
Andrew J. Sordoni, who had purchased it several years earlier.
In Sugar Notch, she unveiled a 16-ton granite monument dedicated to her
husband, the 32nd U.S. president, and the 680 young men and women from Sugar
Notch who served in the Civil and Spanish-American wars, World War I and World
War II.
While addressing about 3,000 residents, the former first lady said the
United States should use its strengths for peace.
“The next war may not only destroy our enemies but us.”
The Wilkes-Barre Record even documented Roosevelt’s appearance:
“Dressed in a `new look’ black-and-white print dress, together with a
pearl necklace, beautiful corsage and Navy-style box hat of white with a ring
of flowers set off with a black bow, Mrs. Roosevelt was charming and graceful.
She exchanged words with many persons and shook their hands.”
Roosevelt took advantage of her visits to the area to share her political
ideology. During a Hanukkah dinner held at the Hotel Casey in Scranton on Dec.
3, 1956, she spoke on the state of Israel’s bond issue.
She returned two years later for a dinner at the Jewish Community Center in
Wilkes-Barre to support the same cause.
On Nov. 7, 1957, Roosevelt, the former chairperson of the Human Rights
Delegation of the United Nations, returned to the Wyoming Valley, this time
addressing the Wilkes College Collegiate Council of United Nations.
She was honored for her “distinguished service to understanding between
people of the world.”
The former first lady, then 73, urged members of the audience of more than
1,200 to urge the U.S. government to share information about Soviet Russia.
“In an extemporaneous speech frequently sprinkled with humor, she gave a
challenging view of the problems which are being faced by the free world
today,” read a Nov. 8, 1957, article in the Wilkes-Barre Record.
“I believe the American people haven’t been told what they ought to be
told,” Roosevelt said to the audience.
“We don’t know what’s going on in Russia and in the minds of nearly 200
million people in Russia.”
Dozens of clippings are stored in Times Leader archives chronicling
Roosevelt’s life, including briefs on trips abroad, illnesses, the birth and
death of children and grandchildren, as well as new hair styles.
One of the last clippings is dated Nov. 8, 1962 – the day after “her heart
failed under a burden of tuberculosis and anemia.”
The news brief noted she died exactly 30 years after her husband was first
elected president.