Anna Roosevelt was the eldest child and only daughter of President Franklin Roosevelt and his wife Eleanor. In the White House, she acted as de facto first lady and White House hostess. Her mother was too politically active to be bothered with social functions, so Anna served in her stead. Given her role as Roosevelt’s social secretary, Anna asked to accompany her father to the 1945 Yalta Conference, where he met with Joseph Stalin and Winston Churchill to decide the fate of post-war Europe. President Roosevelt, who was dying of heart disease, had the option of picking either Eleanor or Anna.
For the president, the decision was easy. His marriage with Eleanor was on the rocks, particularly as rumors swirled about the president’s affair with Lucy Mercer Rutherford. Unsurprisingly, FDR did not want Eleanor with him, so he put Anna on the delegation to avoid bringing her mother. At Yalta, Anna’s job was to make the ailing president’s life as easy as possible, mostly by ensuring that social functions ran smoothly so FDR could focus on his official duties without compromising his health. However, the conference and its aftermath resulted in friction with her mother.
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In 1945, President Roosevelt died. Naturally, Anna told her mother of the circumstances of the death, revealing, in what probably stung Eleanor, that FDR had spent his last moments with Lucy. Anna had known about the affair for years, but concealed it from her mother, who took it as a personal betrayal of sorts.
