First lady Eleanor Roosevelt visited a WPA project on the Des Moines riverfront during a visit in 1936. (Photos: Works Progress Administration) By Dave Elbert Ninety years ago, Des Moines hosted Eleanor Roosevelt for one of the busiest days of her 12-plus years as first lady. President Franklin R oosevelt’s wife arrived by train at 7:30 a.m. on Monday, June 9, 1936, and left by rail at 9 p.m. the same day. During those 13½ hours, Mrs. Roosevelt made more than two dozen stops. She gave the commencement address at Drake University, attended a reception at Terrace Hill, dined with a group of professional women, toured downtown and several Works Progress Administration projects, including a homestead subsistence effort in Granger. The day began with confusion when her welcoming committee at Des Moines’ Rock Island Station had problems identifying her rail car. She was in car No. 18, but the number was not displayed. The official welcomers, including Drake President D.W. Morehouse and Iowa National Guard Adj. Gen. Charles Grahl, were near the rear of the train when they “discovered she was to alight from a car near the front,” the Des Moines Register reported. But, the newspaper added, Mrs. Roosevelt put them all at ease with her “famous Roosevelt smile.” The first lady “uses no make-up and her skin is tanned a golden brown. … Her fingers were covered with rings – seven in all,” which she later removed at events where she shook hands, according to the Des Moines Tribune’s Lucile Selby. She added that Mrs. Roosevelt “kept a plain linen handkerchief with which she frequently wiped her face as the day grew increasingly warm.” Gen. Grahl, Mrs. Roosevelt’s chauffeur for the day, headed first to the Hotel Fort Des Moines where the first lady had a breakfast of orange juice, rolls, marmalade and coffee. While she ate, officials looked for her luggage – eight travel bags, which had been temporarily misplaced. Once the bags were found, the first lady changed to a formal cap and gown and the general drove her to the Drake’s University Church of Christ for the 9 a.m. graduation, pictured. During her commencement address, the first lady warned of “heightened vehemence” by leaders during those pre-World War II years. She told the new graduates, “It isn’t through any kind of ‘ism’ that we are going to preserve our form government; it’s through understanding.” Solutions come when individuals “develop a strong interest in other human beings,” she said. After Drake, it was downtown for a newspaper carriers’ parade with 22 bands and more than 4,000 carriers from throughout Iowa. At one point, Mrs. Roosevelt broke away from the viewing, saying, “Let’s walk” to Postmaster L.S. Hill. “Almost unnoticed, the First Lady strode from” Seventh and Grand south to Locust and west to Eighth “where she visited state relief headquarters,” the Register reported. She also visited Smouse School and the Negro Community Center Opportunity Center, where she sympathized with babies who cried when flash bulbs went off. Des Moines was one of hundreds of trips Mrs. Roosevelt took during the Great Depression and World War II on behalf of her husband, whose mobility was limited by paralysis. “It is no secret he depends upon her in great measure to report conditions in the nation at large,” the Register explained. While at Terrace Hill, Mrs. Roosevelt wrote her daily newspaper column “My Day,” focusing on her Drake experience. “I believe there is nothing in the world as hot as these (commencement) gowns,” she wrote. She also mentioned a “rather badly typed letter” from a Drake student. “I hope he will use a better ribbon on his typewriter in the future, particularly if he is applying for a job,” she added. Dave Elbert has covered local history and business news for more than 40 years, first for the Des Moines Register and then the Business Record. Find more local history in Elbert’s Backstories. ...read more read less