Saturday I went to my local Cape Coral Library to see the program The Four Loves of FDR. This original play disclosed FDR's intimate relationships with his wife, Eleanor, the beautiful Lucy Mercer, devoted and fiercely protective personal secretary, Missy LeHand, and Daisy Suckley, longtime Hyde Park neighbor and confidant.
These four women and their private roles in history were portrayed by two Fort Myers dramatists: Rusty Brown, author of the play and well known performer of one-woman shows, and Regina Dowd, an experienced actor with leading roles in Fort Myers and regional theaters.
Roosevelt reportedly had affairs outside his marriage, including one with Eleanor's social secretary, Lucy Mercer, which began soon after she was hired in 1914. In 1918 Eleanor found love letters in Franklin's luggage and offered him a divorce. Franklin's mother threatened to "cut him off without another dollar" if he brought scandal to their family. Franklin's son, Elliott, later stated that his father also had a 20 year relationship with his private secretary, Missy LeHand . Later, Roosevelt's daughter, Anna, arranged for her father to resume his affair and secretly meet in the White House with mistress Lucy Mercer Rutherford. Lucy's code name given by the Secret Service was "Mrs. Johnson."
Margaret "Daisy" Suckley was one of four women (along with Lucy Mercer) with FDR in Warm Springs, GA when he died in 1945. The nature of their relationship was discovered upon her death in 1991 when thousands of pages of notes, letters and diary entries were found in a black suitcase under her bed. The only two published photographs of Roosevelt in a wheelchair were taken by Daisy.
