Eleanor Roosevelt Seagraves Eleanor Roosevelt Seagraves Anna Eleanor Roosevelt Seagraves (née Dall, born March 25, 1927, in New York City) is an American librarian, educator, historian, and editor. She is a granddaughter of Franklin D. Roosevelt. Her parents are Anna Roosevelt Dall and her first husband Curtis Bean Dall. She is usually known as "Sistie", "Ellie" or "Eleanor". Sistie, as she was affectionately called in the press during her grandparents' tenure in the White House, was named for her mother and for her maternal grandmother, Eleanor Roosevelt. When her parents separated in 1933 (they divorced in 1934), she along with her mother and
Eleanor Roosevelt becoming First Lady, stating her intention to be only a "backdrop for Bertie." Eleanor's distress at these precedents was severe enough that Hickok subtitled her biography of Roosevelt "Reluctant First Lady". With support from Howe and Hickok, Roosevelt set out to redefine the position. According to her biographer Blanche Wiesen Cook, she became "the most controversial First Lady in United States history" in the process. Despite criticism of them both, with her husband's strong support she continued with the active business and speaking agenda she had begun before assuming the role of First Lady in an era when few married