Grace Tully

Transcription

My name is Cynthia Koch and I’m the director of the Franklin D. Roosevelt Presidential Library and Museum. Grace Tully was FDR’s last personal secretary. She worked closely with him and was with FDR until the day he died in Warm Springs, Georgia, on April 12, 1945. We were long aware that this collection was there. I’ve had my eye on it for ten years. I’m Bob Clark, I’m the supervisory archivist. This collection is really unique. It’s not only Grace Tully’s papers, it’s also the papers of Missy Le Hand, who was her predecessor as FDR’s primary secretary. They’re handwritten notes that FDR jotted down that then either Miss Tully or Miss Le Hand would turn into official memos. “Secretary of War. General Pershing asks very strongly Colonel George C. Marshall (Infantry) be promoted to Brigadier. Can we put in list of next promotions?” And of course George Marshall would become the most important of Roosevelt’s military advisors during World War II. A fascinating document in this collection is a handwritten letter to FDR written around June of 1933. My dear Mr. President. I hope of meeting you some day in the near future in order to have the opportunity to discuss with you the outstanding world problems in which United States and Italy are mutually interested. I am, my dear Mr. President, very sincerely yours, Mussolini My predecessor in the 1980s wrote to Grace Tully when she was still alive and asked her to please consider donating her FDR letters. Miss Tully died in 1984 and we believe Grace Tully’s papers then passed from her heirs into private hands. They ultimately were sold a couple of times at auction, most recently reappearing for sale in 2004. Dear Grace, I’m in Cairo. Busy all times. Churchill here with his daughter Sarah. Also Generalissimo and Madame Chiang Kai-shek! The conference goes fairly well. My role is that of peacemaker. I’ve seen the pyramids and made close friends with the Sphinx. Congress should know her. Much love, FDR Lucy Mercer Rutherfurd, as many people know, had a brief affair with Franklin Roosevelt in the 19-teens. Grace’s papers contain many things that are very personal. And this letter to Grace is arranging for Lucy and her friend Elizabeth Shoumatoff to come to Warm Springs, Georgia, so that Elizabeth Shoumatoff could paint a portrait of FDR. With many thanks again for being so very understanding and thoughtful. If you change your mind and think it would be better for me not to come, call me up. I really am terribly worried, as I imagine you all are. Of course, Lucy and Madame Shoumatoff were there the day that FDR was stricken with a cerebral hemorrhage that killed him. And the portrait that Elizabeth Shoumatoff was working on is now known as the “unfinished portrait.” We were so taken with the entire collection that we began the lengthy process of negotiation and ultimately an Act of Congress which paved the way for the donor. This is a collection of material never before seen by the public, never before seen by researchers. That collection has now become the property of the U.S. government and of the people of the United States.