Lorena Hickok

Lorena A. Hickok

Eleanor Roosevelt (2nd from left) and Lorena Hickok (far right)
Born Lorena Alice Hickok
March 7, 1893
East Troy, Wisconsin
Died May 1, 1968 (1968-06) (aged 75)
Hyde Park, New York
Nationality American
Occupation journalist, public relations official
Known for journalism, relationship with Eleanor Roosevelt

Lorena Alice Hickok (March 7, 1893 – May 1, 1968) was an American journalist known for her close relationship with First Lady Eleanor Roosevelt.

Born in East Troy, Wisconsin to a dressmaker and a dairy-farmer, Hickok had an unhappy childhood marked by isolation and abuse. After her mother's death when Hickok was fourteen, she left home, worked on her own, and completed high school with the help of a cousin. She went into journalism after failing out of college, and soon became a successful reporter for the Minneapolis Tribune and the Associated Press (AP), achieving several firsts for American women journalists. By 1932, she had become the nation's best-known female reporter.[1]

After being assigned to cover Roosevelt during her husband's first presidential campaign, Hickok struck up a close relationship with the soon-to-be First Lady. For several years, the two corresponded almost every day, traveled together, and professed emotional and physical affection for one another. The exact nature of this relationship has been widely discussed by historians; some have argued that the relationship was clearly romantic or erotic, while others have argued that historians have been misled by Roosevelt's exuberant letters. More than 3,000 letters from the pair's correspondence are preserved at the Franklin D. Roosevelt Presidential Library and Museum.

Compromised as a reporter by her personal relationship with Roosevelt, Hickok left the AP and began work as the chief investigator for the Federal Emergency Relief Administration (FERA), a department of Franklin Roosevelt's New Deal. Hickok encouraged or inspired several of Eleanor Roosevelt's initiatives, including her syndicated column, her all-women press conferences, and her planned community at Arthurdale, West Virginia. As Hickok grew more demanding of the First Lady, however, the pair's initial closeness lessened. Following complications with her diabetes, Hickok resigned from FERA in 1936 and worked for three years promoting the 1939 New York World's Fair. From 1940 to 1945, she served as the executive secretary of the Women's Division of the Democratic National Committee, living at the White House for most of this time. As her diabetes steadily worsened, she lived out her final years at Hyde Park to be near Roosevelt, publishing several books.

Early life and reporting career

Lorena Hickok, popularly known as "Hick", was born in East Troy in Walworth County, Wisconsin, the daughter of Anna Adelsa (née Waite) and Addison Hickok. Lorena's mother made dresses, while her father was a buttermaker. During childhood, Hickok experienced a troubled family life, characterized by abuse, unemployment, and repeated moves.[2] When Hickok was ten, the family moved to Bowdle, South Dakota.[3] An introverted child, Hickok was embarrassed by her height, and later recalled that she spent most of her time in solitude, daydreaming or playing with the animals of her family's farm.[3] At fourteen, she left home following her mother's death, and worked as a maid until her mother's cousin, Ella Ellis, took her in. While living with Ellis, Hickok finished high school and enrolled at Lawrence College in Appleton, Wisconsin.[2]

Unable to fit in at college, Hickok failed out in her first year.[2] She was hired to cover train arrivals and departures and write personal interest stories at The Battle Creek Evening News for $7 a week.[4] In an attempt to follow in the footsteps of her role model, novelist and former reporter Edna Ferber, she joined the Milwaukee Sentinel as its society editor, but moved on to the city beat where she developed a talent as an interviewer.[2] She interviewed celebrities, including actress Lillian Russell, pianist Ignacy Paderewski, and opera singers Nellie Melba and Geraldine Farrar, gaining a wide audience.[5] She also became close friends with diva Ernestine Schumann-Heink.[6]

Hickok moved to Minneapolis to work for the Minneapolis Tribune. She enrolled at the University of Minnesota, leaving upon being forced to live in a women's dormitory. She stayed with the Tribune where she was given opportunities unusual for a female reporter. She had a byline and was the paper's chief reporter, covering politics, sports, and preparing editorials.[2] During her tenure with the paper, she also covered the football team, becoming one of the first female reporters to be assigned a sports beat.[7] In 1923, she won an award from the Associated Press for writing the best feature story of the month, a piece on President Warren G. Harding's funeral train.[8]

During her years in Minneapolis, Hickok lived with a society reporter named Ella Morse, with whom she had a six-year relationship.[9] In 1926, Hickok was diagnosed with diabetes, and Morse persuaded her take a year's leave from the newspaper so the pair could travel to San Francisco and Hickok could write a novel. At the beginning of the leave, however, Morse unexpectedly eloped with an ex-boyfriend, leaving Hickok devastated.[10] Unable to face a return to Minneapolis, Hickok moved to New York, landing a job with the New York Daily Mirror.[11]

After working for The Mirror for about a year, Hickok obtained a job with the Associated Press in 1928, where she became one of the wire service's top correspondents. Her November 1928 story on the sinking of the SS Vestris was published in the New York Times under her own byline, the first woman's byline to appear in the paper. She also reported on the Lindbergh kidnapping and other national events.[7] By 1932, she had become the nation's best-known female reporter.[1]

Early relationship with Eleanor Roosevelt

Eleanor Roosevelt in 1933

Hickok first met Roosevelt in 1928 when assigned to interview her by the AP.[12] In 1932, Hickok convinced her editors to allow her to cover Eleanor Roosevelt during her husband's presidential campaign and for the four-month period between his election and inauguration.[2] When the mother of Franklin's secretary, Missy LeHand, died in October 1932, Eleanor invited Hickok to accompany her to Potsdam, New York for the funeral. The women spent the long train ride talking, beginning a long friendship.[13] By Franklin's inauguration on March 4, 1933, Hickok had become Eleanor's closest friend. The two made trips together to Albany and Washington, D.C., and spent nearly every day in each other's company. Hickok joined the Roosevelts every Sunday night for dinner, while on other nights Eleanor joined Hickok at the theater or opera, or at dinners alone at Hickok's apartment.[14] For the inauguration, Eleanor wore a sapphire ring Hickok had given her.[15]

That same day, Hickok interviewed Roosevelt in a White House bathroom, her first official interview as First Lady.[16] By this time, Hickok was deeply in love with Roosevelt and finding it increasingly difficult to provide objective reporting.[17][18] In addition, Hickok's job kept her largely in New York, while Eleanor was in Washington. Both women were troubled by the separation, professing their love by telephone and letter; Roosevelt put a picture of Hickok up in her study, which she told Hickok she kissed every night and every morning.[19] During this period, Roosevelt wrote daily ten- to fifteen-page letters to "Hick", who was planning to write a biography of the First Lady.[20]

The nature of Hickok and Roosevelt's relationship has been a subject of dispute among historians. Roosevelt was close friends with several lesbian couples, such as Nancy Cook and Marion Dickerman, and Esther Lape and Elizabeth Read, suggesting that she was familiar with the lifestyle; Marie Souvestre, Roosevelt's childhood teacher and a great influence on her later thinking, was also a lesbian.[21] Hickok biographer Doris Faber published some of Roosevelt and Hickok's correspondence in 1980, but concluded that the lovestruck phrasing was simply an "unusually belated schoolgirl crush"[22] and warned historians not to be misled.[18] Researcher Leila J. Rupp criticized Faber's argument, calling her book "a case study in homophobia" and arguing that Faber unwittingly presented "page after page of evidence that delineates the growth and development of a love affair between the two women".[23] In 1992, Roosevelt biographer Blanche Wiesen Cook argued that the relationship was in fact romantic, generating national attention.[22][24][25]

Biographer Doris Kearns Goodwin summarized the letters between Hickok and Roosevelt thus:

Hick longed to kiss the soft spot at the corner of Eleanor's mouth; Eleanor yearned to hold Hick close; Hick despaired at being away from Eleanor; Eleanor wished she could lie down beside Hick and take her in her arms. Day after day, month after month, the tone in the letters on both sides remains fervent and loving.[18]

Goodwin concluded, however, that "whether Hick and Eleanor went beyond kisses and hugs" cannot be known for certain, and that the important issue is the impact the close relationship had on both women's lives.[18] A 2011 essay by Russell Baker reviewing two new Roosevelt biographies in the New York Times Review of Books stated, "That the Hickok relationship was indeed erotic now seems beyond dispute."[26]

In the Roosevelt administration

From 1933 to 1936, Hickok was the lead investigator for Federal Emergency Relief Administration head Harry Hopkins (pictured).

Early in the Roosevelt administration, Hickok is credited with pushing Eleanor to write her own newspaper column, "My Day", and to hold weekly press conferences specifically for female journalists.[27] Hickok found it difficult to objectively cover the Roosevelts herself, however, and once suppressed a story at Eleanor's request. The declining quality of her reporting soon caused her to receive a pay cut.[28] Despite her worries about leaving the career on which she had built her identity, Hickok quit the AP at Eleanor's urging in mid-1933.[29] Eleanor then helped Hickok obtain the position as a Chief Investigator for Harry Hopkins' Federal Emergency Relief Administration (FERA), where she conducted fact-finding missions.[28] In 1933, Hickok went on a two-month tour of the American South, where she was horrified by the poverty, malnutrition, and lack of education that she encountered.[30] She urged Eleanor to visit a tent city of homeless ex-miners in Morgantown, West Virginia, an experience that led Eleanor to found the federal housing project of Arthurdale, West Virginia.[31] In March 1934, Hickok accompanied Eleanor on a fact-finding trip to the US territory of Puerto Rico, reporting afterward to Hopkins that the island's poverty was too severe for FERA to usefully intervene.[32]

During her time with FERA, Hickok developed a dislike of reporters. In one report to Hopkins in 1934, she wrote, "Believe me, the next state administrator who lets out any publicity on me is going to get his head cracked".[33] In February 1934, Time called her "a rotund lady with a husky voice, a peremptory manner, baggy clothes", a description that wounded Hickok.[34] In a letter to Hopkins' secretary, she asked, "Why the Hell CAN'T they leave me alone?"[35] Following the incident, Hickok and Roosevelt redoubled their efforts to keep their relationship out of the spotlight; on one occasion, Roosevelt wrote to her, "we must must be careful this summer & keep it out of the papers when we are off together.[36]

As Roosevelt became more active as first lady, however, she had less time for Hickok. Hickok grew angry and jealous at perceived slights, and demanded more time alone, which Roosevelt was unable to give;[37] at other times, she attempted unsuccessfully to separate herself from Roosevelt.[38] Though the pair remained friends throughout their lives, they continued to grow apart in the years that followed.[36] In 1937, Roosevelt wrote to Hickok that "I never meant to hurt you in any way, but that is no excuse having done it . . . I am pulling back from all my contacts now . . . Such cruelty & stupidity is unpardonable when you reach my age."[37]

After an incident with her diabetes while traveling, Hickok resigned her FERA post for health reasons in late 1936.[7]

World's Fair

From 1936 to 1939, Hickok worked in public relations for the 1939 New York World's Fair.

On the advice of Roosevelt's secretary, Malvina Thompson, Hickok then sought work in New York with public relations man and politician Grover Whalen. Shortly after Franklin Roosevelt's 1936 re-election, Hickok was hired by Whalen to do publicity for the 1939 New York World's Fair. Opportunities for female employees of the Fair were limited, and she found the work unrewarding compared to her reporting days. Hickok primarily worked on promoting the fair to young people, including arranging class trips. Because Hickok rented both a country home and an apartment, she often faced financial problems despite her good salary during these years, and Roosevelt occasionally sent her small gifts of money.[7]

Democratic National Committee

With help from Roosevelt, Hickok became the executive secretary of the Women's Division of the Democratic National Committee (DNC) in February 1940, doing groundwork for the 1940 election. Taking to the road again, she wrote Roosevelt, "This job is such fun, dear ... It's the nearest thing to newspaper work I've found since I left the A.P."[7]

From early January 1941 until shortly after FDR's fourth inauguration in 1945, she lived at the White House. During her time there, Hickok's nominal address was at the Mayflower Hotel in DC, where she met most people. Also during this time, she formed an intense friendship with Marion Janet Harron, a United States Tax Court judge who was ten years younger than she[39] and almost the only person to visit her at the White House.[40]

When Hickok's diabetes worsened in 1945, she was forced to leave her position with the DNC. Two years later, Roosevelt found her a position with the New York State Democratic Committee. When Hickok's health continued to decline, she moved to Hyde Park to be closer to Roosevelt. She lived in a cottage on the Roosevelt estate, where she died in 1968.[2]

Legacy

Late in life, Hickok wrote several books. She co-authored Ladies of Courage with Eleanor Roosevelt in 1954.[41] This was followed by The Story of Franklin D. Roosevelt (1956), The Story of Helen Keller (1958), The Story of Eleanor Roosevelt (1959), and several more.

Hickok willed her personal papers to the Franklin D. Roosevelt Presidential Library and Museum in Hyde Park, part of the US National Archives. Her donation was contained in eighteen filing boxes that, according to the provisions of her will, were to be sealed until ten years after her death. In early May 1978, Doris Faber, as part of research for a projected short biography of Eleanor Roosevelt, became perhaps the first person outside the National Archives to open these boxes, and was astounded to discover that they contained 2,336 letters from Roosevelt to Hickok, and 1,024 letters from Hickok to Roosevelt. Most of them dated to the 1930s, but the correspondence continued up to Roosevelt's 1962 death.[42] Hickok's papers remain at the FDR Library and Museum, where they are available to the public.[43]

Based on these letters, Terry Baum and Pat Bond wrote the play, HICK: A Love Story, the Romance of Lorena Hickok and Eleanor Roosevelt.[44]

References

  1. 1 2 Goodwin 1994, p. 219.
  2. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 "Lorena Alice Hickok (1893 - 1968)". The Eleanor Roosevelt Papers Project. Retrieved December 18, 2012.
  3. 1 2 Cook 1992, p. 480–81.
  4. ↑ Cook 1992, p. 484.
  5. ↑ Cook 1992, p. 484–85.
  6. ↑ Cook 1992, p. 486.
  7. 1 2 3 4 5 Martinelli, Diana Knott; Bowen, Shannon A. (2009). "The Public Relations Work of Journalism Trailblazer and First Lady Confidante Lorena Hickok, 1937-45". Journalism History 35 (3): 131–40. Retrieved December 18, 2012.
  8. ↑ Cook 1992, p. 487.
  9. ↑ Goodwin 1994, p. 220.
  10. ↑ Cook 1992, p. 487–88.
  11. ↑ Cook 1992, p. 488.
  12. ↑ Cook 1992, p. 450.
  13. ↑ Rowley 2010, p. 173.
  14. ↑ Rowley 2010, p. 176.
  15. ↑ Goodwin 1994, p. 221.
  16. ↑ Rowley 2010, p. 183.
  17. ↑ Rowley 2010, p. 177, 183.
  18. 1 2 3 4 Goodwin 1994, p. 222.
  19. ↑ Rowley 2010, p. 184.
  20. ↑ Cook 1999, p. 2.
  21. ↑ Rowley 2010, p. 185.
  22. 1 2 Felsenthal, Carol (May 10, 1992). "Surprising revelations about a presidential spouse". Chicago Sun-Times.  – via HighBeam Research (subscription required) . Retrieved December 18, 2012.
  23. ↑ Rupp, Leila J. (1980). "'Imagine My Surprise': Women's Relationships in Historical Perspective". Frontiers: A Journal of Women Studies 5 (3): 61–70. doi:10.2307/3346519. Retrieved December 18, 2012.
  24. ↑ McCarthy, Abigail (April 19, 1992). "Out of Her Husband's Shadow". The Washington Post.  – via HighBeam Research (subscription required) . Retrieved December 18, 2012.
  25. ↑ Cook, Blanche Wiesen (July 5, 1993). "Eleanor - loves of a First Lady". The Nation.  – via HighBeam Research (subscription required) . Retrieved December 18, 2012.
  26. ↑ Baker, Russell (June 9, 2011). "The Charms of Eleanor". The New York Review of Books. Archived from the original on November 21, 2012. Retrieved November 22, 2012.
  27. ↑ Hill, Michael (December 23, 1999). "The Rediscovery Of Lorena Hickok ; Eleanor Roosevelt's Friend Finally Getting Recognition". The Seattle Times. Archived from the original on December 27, 2012.
  28. 1 2 Cook 1999, p. 116.
  29. ↑ Goodwin 1994, p. 222–23.
  30. ↑ Cook 1999, p. 164–65.
  31. ↑ Cook 1999, p. 120.
  32. ↑ Cook 1999, p. 172.
  33. ↑ Faber 1980, p. 150–160.
  34. ↑ Cook 1999, p. 167–68.
  35. ↑ Roosevelt, Eleanor, Lorena A. Hickok, and Rodger Streitmatter. Empty Without You: The Intimate Letters of Eleanor Roosevelt and Lorena Hickok. New York: Free Press, 1998. pp. 89-90.
  36. 1 2 Rowley 2010, p. 198.
  37. 1 2 Goodwin 1994, p. 223.
  38. ↑ Cook 1999, p. 215.
  39. ↑ John B. Roberts, "Rating the First Ladies: The Women Who Influenced the Presidency", Citadel Press, 2004, p. 247
  40. ↑ Faber 1980, ch. 18.
  41. ↑ "3,360 Intimate Letters Raise Questions About Lorena Hickok, the Woman Eleanor Roosevelt Called 'Darling'". People. November 12, 1979. Archived from the original on December 18, 2012. Retrieved December 18, 2012.
  42. ↑ "Eleanor Roosevelt's intimate letters to woman writer bared". The Miami Herald. New York Times news service. October 22, 1979. Retrieved December 18, 2012.
  43. ↑ "Papers of Lorena Hickok" (PDF). Franklin D. Roosevelt Presidential Library. Archived from the original on December 18, 2012. Retrieved December 18, 2012.
  44. ↑ http://press-push.com/hick/bio.html

Bibliography

Further reading

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