Eleanor Roosevelt was born in New York City on October 11, 1884, to a prominent American family. In fact, her uncle Teddy Roosevelt had been president of the United States. She was a shy child who experienced great loss at a young age — her mother died when she was just eight, and her father died just two years later. She was then sent to boarding school in England for her teenage years.
It was not long after she returned to the States that she married her distant cousin, Franklin Delano Roosevelt, in 1905 at the age of 21. Franklin was a lawyer. But he was happy to tell anyone who would listen that he wouldn't be for long. He planned to win a seat in the state legislature, become an assistant secretary of the Navy, and then become governor of New York. This path, he reasoned, was sure to lead to the presidency.
Originally, his wife Eleanor was brought along for the ride. The first years of their marriage were filled with campaigns for him and pregnancies for her. He ran for state senate twice and she became pregnant six times, although only five of the children survived.

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