Aunt Eleanor had not wanted the public life of first lady.  She dreamed of being a private person, living quietly in her Val-Kill Cottage, enjoying her family and friends, knitting even more baby sweaters, walking through her woods.  Then, suddenly, Uncle Franklin died, and she was out of the White House in a few day's time, making haste so that President Truman could move in.
    She traveled to her cottage, taking her personal belongings and her favorite pictures with her, but soon found herself unsatisfied.  She hadn't realized how much it meant to her to promote the causes in which she was particularly interested: world peace, women's rights, universal education, and personal fulfillment.  As first lady, she had more influence than she realized, and she told me she was surprised to find she missed it.  But she didn't let her loss of official status stop her from working on the behalf of others. 
    Thinking it might keep her in the public eye, she even did an advertisement for margarine.  I was present when three of her sons tried to dissuade her from doing something so undignified.  Unaware of the quality of her own celebrity, she argued that she still wanted to be useful and it was good to keep her name in people's minds.  Her shocked sons countered that she couldn't erase  her name from peoples minds even if she tried.  On said, "Mummy, you don't need advertisement.  That's been our trouble all our lives!"
    She went ahead with her advertisement, then seemed to decide that product promotion was not the path toward her vision.  She did not have to wait long for an alternative.  President Truman thrust her back onto the center of the world stage by appointing her to the first delegation to the first session of the new United Nations.