Features his springwood estate, his president ial library next door and also the final resting places of fdr and first lady Eleanor Roosevelt. We visited the grounds and went to the home of david roosevelt, a grandson of president and mrs. Roosevelt, to talk with him about his memories of hyde park and his time spent there with his grandmother. It really was not until my grandmothers funeral that i realized that it really kind of hit me that she was really a special person. And something of a celebrity. And seeing, you know, the president , two expresident s, one future president and all sorts of ambassadors and other diplomatic people there, very important people, that it really dawned on me, my gosh, she really was important. We never thought of her in that way. We never viewed my grandmother. She was only a grandmother to us. And thats all she ever wanted to be to us. I was born in january 3rd, 1942. My father was elliot. And elliot was the second oldest of the sons, the third oldest of the children. So my dad kind of fell right in the middle and i think he always felt that he was the middle child, but, you know, my uncles used to claim that he was my grandmothers favorite. Im not sure that was true, but thats what they claimed anyway. My mother and father were divorced when i was only 2. And my time with my father was really quite limited. As a consequence, you know, the only thing that i can remember really him talking about was how he almost felt somewhat estranged from my grandmother. Because, i mean, he loved her dearly, but she was so busy that it was almost that he felt that she didnt have time for him. My grandmother, by her own admission, was not a particularly good mother. She her own experience of not having a mother to grow up with, she never learned how to be a mother, good or bad. And as a consequence, i think she paid special attention to her grandchildren to make up for not being a good mother. Now, i can remember going for quite lengthy walks in the woods with my grandmother and she would always want to know what my interests were, and, you know, as a child at 7, 8, 9 years old, gosh, here is my grandmother paying attention to me and wanting to know, you know, how my life is going and she very, very seldom talked about, until we were much older, she very seldom talked about her work and the things that she did, as i said, until we were considerably older. She was a typical grandmother, but my grandmother was a horrible cook. She did not cook. But, you know, she always made time for the grandchildren that were there. And they had a very special place and we had the run of valkill, of the place. So we were very, very busy. But, no, she was, you know, i just remember the times that i had with her and just being with her. And really basking in her love, really. How was she as a grandmother . Was she any type of disciplinarian or was she an indulgent grandmother . She was very indulgent. She was absolutely no disciplinarian whatsoever. Yes, she was very, very indulgent of all of us. We, you know, there were a lot of times when she would have someone who was quite famous visiting her and, you know, the grandchildren would disturb her or disturb them and she would never scold us. She would just say, you know, thats my grandchild or kwhafr. And that was it. It was no problem. Do you remember any particular dig dear or person of importance that came to visit that you guys were particularly maybe obnoxious . Well, there is this story of a little 7yearold who was out in the pool with his cousins and, of course, we were not allowed to go into the stone cottage, which is where the pool is. For the restroom. And, of course, you as a child, you always waited until the absolute last moment. So the story goes this little boy ran right through grandmas office going to the restroom and water flying off of him and what not, and right past my grandmother. And grandma said, well, that was my grandson david and i will introduce him on his way back. So thats, you know, just there was no scolding whatsoever. But thats the way it was. Did you ever at any point i know you mentioned that you didnt really get how famous or important your grandmother was until her funeral, but at any point was there any indication of her fame or her Public Service growing up . Oh, sure. You know, i would there were times when i would accompany my grandmother to various activities that she was doing. I remember one down in texas when she came and she was going to speak at a black church down in i believe it was houston. I believe. And i went with her. And to see the adoration that these people and people were lined in the streets wait for her. And, you know, it was so touching. Of course i was older at that time. I can remember times when she did not receive such warm welcomes as well. Now, i did not have the opportunity to travel with her internationally. My older brother and sister did and some of my other cousins, but i did not, unfortunately. What were some of the things that the negative perception that your grandmother received and what was your reaction to that . Well, you know, i can remember a few cases of where there would be within the crowd there would be signs, you know, that were derogatory towards my grandmother and, you know, it didnt bother me so much because i knew that she, you know, at this time i knew that she was controversial. Now, i dont know if you realize that during her lifetime there were 19 attempts to assassinate her. So, you know, she was not universally loved by any stretch of the imagination. I mean, what what do you sit there and whats the talk at the dinner table, you know, when everyones talking and theyre like someone tried to kill grandma, what does the family do . Well, you know, for the most part it was not talked about. It was certainly not discussed, you know, in a lot of cases it was just, well, you know, it happened. Fighters t fighters the kkk put the largest bounty on their head that they have ever gotten for anyone and there was one occasion when some of the kkk had an opportunity to assassinate her, and a very good opportunity, but so the story goes that they couldnt bring themselves to kill this woman. So, your, it was very real. Very real. Did your grandmother ever speak about it or never. Never . Never. And certainly not to her grandchildren. She never had her had personal protection whatsoever. And i think that she just accepted that her work was too important to allow any kinds of threats to disturb her. And she just went right on doing her thing. Did you do you remember at all any oh your relationship with fdr . And then did eleanor talk about him as you all were growing up . Well, its interesting that first i was too young to really remember my grandfather. But i dont recall my grandmother ever specifically discussing fdr with us. You know, they had an interesting, if you will, relationship. Certainly it was not the kind of marriage that one would think of as a normal marriage. And yet they had such a strong partnership. And they had such respect for each other. And each others work, really. That it really made it quite a special relationship, i think. If i would ask my grandmother about fdr, she would answer and it was always very positive, very loving, if you will. But she did not dwell on that at all. You know, i dont think my grandmother really enjoyed being first lady, being married to the president. Although i think she realized after fdr became president that it placed her in a position where she could have impact in areas that she was really interested in herself. Civil rights. Human rights, obviously. Things like that. Education. So, you know, it really was quite a Striking Partnership between the two. When did your grandmother pass away . 1962. Do you remember the day that you were told that she had passed . Oh, yes. Yeah. And i was in texas. I immediately left to come back up here. It was a terrible shock to my i mean, its funny, i dont think i ever really believed that she would ever pass away. But it was left quite a hole in my heart. Why did you decide to write a book about your grandmother . Well, thats interesting because i really had no interest in writing yet another biography of my grandmother, and yet no one had ever written anything that from a personal standpoint. And i thought it would be kind of fun for people to know about my grandmother and from the perspective of a grandchild who knew her. I think there is a lot of misconception about my grandmother and what she wanted to try to accomplish. The thing that impresses me most about my grandmother is she really didnt care what other people thought. She would do what she felt was in the best interest of her helping people, helping mankind, actually. So that really was always the thing that impressed me the most. The op the only thing that i recall, and i think she told every one of her grandchildren, was, you know, be proud of your heritage. Be proud of the traditions of your family but never feel that you have to live up to that, to that legacy. You must be your own person. And that is something that all of us carried with us for our entire lives. Since childhood, Franklin Roosevelt was an avid collector of stamps. In his book fdr and the post Office Anthony musso describes a child hobby that became the passion of a president. Stamp collecting was extremely important to fdr. In fact, when i was writing 9 book fdr and the post office, i found four letter in the archive in his handwriting, not typewritten that credited stamp collecting with saving his life after he became ill and ended up being confined to a wheelchair. And what he meant by that, you know, what i gathered from the four letters to his family and friends was that it gave him the motivation to pull himself out of bed, get in his wheelchair, roll over to his desk at spring wood, his family home in hyde park, and just pour over his collection, sometimes ten hours a day. And he said he did that to keep his mind stimulated all the time. He started collecting stamps at 8 years old. Ironically at the time he really made stamp collecting what it became because when she was 8 years old and his mother and his father james and Sarah Roosevelt introduced him to stamp collecting, it was thought to be a childs hobby and adults would never waste their time on stamp collecting be. It was too trivial for them. What was interesting about fdr is he was never interested in the condition of the stamp, the value of the stamp, he was more interested in the person, place or event pictured on the stamp because he kept saying to himself, why are these this person, place or event so worthy to be on a stamp . So in effect he got an education out of stamp collecting. And that came back to serve him very well. I can tell you a very short story when he was president of the United States and we got into world war ii, he was in the war room with all the generals and admirals and they were going over and planning an attack on a certain country, and they were going to come in from a left flank and they were explaining this all to the president. And he said, you know, from my knowledge of that country and geography and terrain, youd be much better off coming in from the right flank. And so the generals from what, you know, i raid about and everything kind of looked at each other like, yeah, this politician, but when they went back and checked, thats exactly he had it right on the money and they did do the attack from the right flank instead of the left. It was easier. I personally picked the time when he became governor of new york state. Thats a very lofty position, you know . He would not preach about it. Never did that once in his life. But he would always seem to weave stamp collecting into his speeches. He was so enthusiastic that finally adults, other adults were saying, wait a minute, if this is good for the governor of new york, why shouldnt i be collecting . And suddenly just the mindset of the country started changing and people were at 5th avenue cocktail parties discussing their latest stamp acquisition. It just happened like that. It definitely changed the whole pace of the post Office Department at that time. What he did was when he ran for president in 1932, he was sworn in on march 4th, 1933, but he selected another up and coming politician and a very savvy businessman, his name was james farley and he made him his Campaign Manager and farley seized on the fact that fdr was touching people personally. Well, he collects stamps and im collecting stamps. He was a regular guy because of that. And so he actually designed campaign envelopes that had fdrs imprint, his picture on the outside of the envelope and it said, elect a stamp collecting president , you know, member of the American Philatelic Association because he wanted that member floating around the country. For instance, ill give you some changes that took place. Fdr personally took away a job of an assistant post master general and he insisted on reviewing and giving final approval to every stamp that came out during his four terms as president. That happened to be 206 stamps. On top of that, he designed several stamps. His most famous was the admiral bird she was very good friends with admiral bird and he was doing his second antarctic extradition and fdr personally designed the stamp. Also fdr and james farley. You had his close ally as post master general and a stamp collector sitting in the oval office and they did so many things to change the face of the post office. One of them was putting in at fdrs suggestion a fhilatelic window. And what the philatelic window, i dont like them being rushed because there is a customer with a heavy parcel behind them. He put in those windows only to be used by stamp collectors. You could take all the time because the person behind you was going to do the staple thing. They introduced first day ceremonies that still go on today and that was james farleys idea. He said we have to get people excited about stamps. So the first time they would see a new stamp is when they went to the window and bought a sheet of stamps. Farley didnt like that. He said we have to have ceremonies to get the networks out and the newspapers. So thats still ongoing. And its a very good tool to get that information out there. So they really, really, the two men really changed the face of the post Office Department. This is actually a piece that belonged to the fdr collection. And i have an interesting story to tell about this. And on the back, the auction house, h. Harner incorporated which were philatelic auctioneers in new york city and london. Obviously they have fdrs collection in new york city. They stamped the back, they authenticated this is a part of fdrs personal collection. You see it was going to the secretary of state. Well, when fdr first got in the oval office, he found that his predecessor, herbert hoover, was also a stamp collector, but not nearly on the level as fdr. And he initiated a program with the state department that once the contents were taken out of these envelopes, all the envelopes, this one in particular is from 1935, all of the envelopes would be forwarded the empty envelopes to the oval office to see if the president needed the stamps for his collection. Well, fdr being fdr, he went a step higher. He once wrote a letter in pencil on white house stationary, and i got it in my hands when i was researching for the book, and it was from the president to the secretary of state. And i said, oh, they must have misfiled this in. I better give this in. You know i was going to read it anyway. It was a handwritten in pencil letter to the secretary of state where fdr was accusing the state Department Employees of holding back some of the empty envelopes and he insisted that the secretary of state oversee that operation. Any stamps that he didnt need, his first secretary as president would snip them off. When she got 25, she would put them in today we call it a plastic baggy because he was getting thousands of letters from children saying, mr. President , i started a stamp collection and she would send them a letter on behalf of the president wishing them well with their collection and starting them off with 25 stamps. So, you know, fdr was in every facet of the industry at that time. He had a portion of his stamp collection with him everywhere he went. That includes, well, obviously he had it at spring wood, his house. When he was governor, he had a portion of a stamp collection with him in the top left drawer of his desk and there were certain memos i read when he was a particularly boring conversation as governor, he would slide the drawer open and start working with his left hand on his stamp collection until the torment of the boring conversation ended. Then he had it obviously at the white house with him. He had a portion of his collection at warm springs, georgia. He even brought a portion of his stamp collection to the famous war conference with churchill and stalin. He was said to work on his stamp collection every single day for one hour before going to bed. And one of the reasons he said was to, you know, let him unwind from the hectic day that he had, eventually during the war period, the war years. He passed away while he was down at warm springs, georgia, on april 12th, 1945. Like i said, he always had a portion of his stamp collection with him and he worked on them that morning when he got up, you know, it was just part of his routine, and then he, you know, of course he died that afternoon at 3 35. Now his son James Roosevelt was the executor of the will. Believe it or not, james could not find one member of the roosevelt family that even wanted one item from the stamp collection. I dont have an exact number on how many items were in the collection, but when he decided to turn it over to auction house, james finally decided my father would probably want to share this with other collectors. There were so many items that they had to do the auction over seven days in four separate sessions, allday sessions. And while his collection was estimated at 85,000, which surprises a lot of people because he was a man of wealth, but dont forget, he didnt care if the stamps were bent or oil from his fingers. The final gavel fell and they raised 225,000. Everybody was furious to get a piece of fdrs collection. Franklin roosevelts president ial Library Curator tours the librarys permanent exhibit dedicated to president roosevelts four terms in office during the Great Depression and world war ii. The library was created in 1941. It was the first president ial library created and operated by the National Archives and records administration. The library was established by president Franklin Roosevelt. He was looking for a way to preserve the papers of his administration and also his personal papers.