FDR & His Secret Friend

The photographer who took the only two published photos of FDR in his wheelchair was Daisy, his sixth cousin.Her real name was Margaret Suckley. According to letters written between them and a book penned by Michael Ware, their friendship was more intimate than thought. It was Daisy who went with him on long rides after FDR had hand controls in his car and who went for long visits at the White House.

According to historians, she downplayed their relationship until her death in 1991. Her home in Rhinebeck NY , Wilderstein, is being repainted - for the first time since the early 1900's- and will be shown on tour. She used to jokingly say that they used "good paint", but Daisy was not wealthy.

"On two recent tours of Wilderstein, guides had much to say about the landscaping by Calvert Vaux and the lavish interiors designed by Joseph Burr Tiffany, a cousin of Louis Comfort Tiffany, but little about Roosevelt beyond the unexciting fact that Daisy gave him his Scottish terrier, Fala. Although Mr. Ward’s book “Closest Companion: The Unknown Story of the Intimate Friendship Between Franklin Roosevelt and Margaret Suckley” was on sale in the gift shop, no one brought up what it reveals.

You may find out a bit more on one of the National Park Service tours given since 2001 at Top Cottage, the last of the Roosevelt sites in Hyde Park to be restored and opened to the public. Or you may not. Every tour there is different, said Kevin Oldenburg, a National Park Service ranger who was leading one in May." Via NY Times

[visual description: A photo of FDR and Margaret Suckley, seated side by side in chairs, laughing, is shown.]