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Eleanor Roosevelt, with Fala.
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It was Fala, my husband’s little dog, who never really readjusted. Once, in 1945, when General Eisenhower came to lay a wreath on Franklin’s grave, the gates of the regular driveway were opened and his automobile approached the house accompanied by the wailing of the sirens of a police escort. When Fala heard the sirens, his legs straightened out, his ears pricked up and I knew that he expected to see his master coming down the drive as he had come so many times. Later, when we were living in the cottage, Fala always lay near the dining-room door where he could watch both entrances just as he did when his master was there. Franklin would often decide suddenly to go somewhere and Fala had to watch both entrances in order to be ready to spring up and join the party on short notice. Fala accepted me after my husband’s death, but I was just someone to put up with until the master should return.
— Eleanor Roosevelt (via necroromantic)
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![No Room At The In
Eleanor Roosevelt often traveled through Portland [Maine] on her way to Campobello Island, President Roosevelt and the first lady’s summer home off the Maine coast. In 1946, while traveling with her dog Fala, the former first lady sought lodging at the Eastland Hotel. She was told that she could stay but that her dog would have to stay in a nearby kennel. She refused to leave her dog and a national controversy ensued. Much was made in the national press of the Eastland management’s decision not to allow the president’s dog to stay in the hotel. Some papers would claim it was pure politics. Others claimed that the same rules applied to everyone. Roosevelt, Fala, and their chauffeur continued on to the Royal River Cabins in Yarmouth and passed the night there before they resumed their trip ro Campobello. The headline in the local paper read: “Dogdom’s Greatest Snubbed Here.” — from The Rines Family Legacy by Frederic L. Thompson
Photo: Franklin D. Roosevelt Library](http://25.media.tumblr.com/tumblr_m1kbactk5P1qlqojoo1_400.jpg)
No Room At The In
Eleanor Roosevelt often traveled through Portland [Maine] on her way to Campobello Island, President Roosevelt and the first lady’s summer home off the Maine coast. In 1946, while traveling with her dog Fala, the former first lady sought lodging at the Eastland Hotel. She was told that she could stay but that her dog would have to stay in a nearby kennel. She refused to leave her dog and a national controversy ensued. Much was made in the national press of the Eastland management’s decision not to allow the president’s dog to stay in the hotel. Some papers would claim it was pure politics. Others claimed that the same rules applied to everyone. Roosevelt, Fala, and their chauffeur continued on to the Royal River Cabins in Yarmouth and passed the night there before they resumed their trip ro Campobello. The headline in the local paper read: “Dogdom’s Greatest Snubbed Here.” — from The Rines Family Legacy by Frederic L. Thompson
Photo: Franklin D. Roosevelt Library
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And Fala Would Lick Them
Stamp ceremony outside the Hyde Park, New York, Post Office for the Franklin D. Roosevelt Memorial Stamp showing the Roosevelt home in Hyde Park, New York, in the background. From left to right in the first row on the platform: Elliott Roosevelt; Faye Emerson (Mrs. Elliott) Roosevelt; former First Lady Eleanor Roosevelt; Postmaster General Robert E. Hannegan; Third Assistant Postmaster Joseph J. Lawler; and Irma (Mrs. Robert) Hannegan. The dog in the lower left corner is probably Fala, former President Franklin D. Roosevelt’s dog. July 26, 1945 (Truman Presidential Library)
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Scotties Run In The Family
Eleanor Roosevelt with Duffie, the Roosevelts’ first Scottish Terrier. Photograph taken by FDR. 1905. (FDR Presidential Library & Museum)
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“To Hyde Park last weekend went Mr. and Mrs. Roosevelt. Like millions of other American couples they sought a relief from the hot stickiness of the city, the constant pressure of workday problems. The President finds respite in reading his beloved detective stories, in playing with his shaggy Scotty, Fala. His wife likes to sit and watch them while she knits.” — LIFE, Aug. 4, 1941
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Aunt Eleanor and Fala (Eleanor Roosevelt II on PNN)
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Caroline And Fala
“I am at our little house in Virginia writing this. My daughter is sick in bed and I have been reading to her all morning — the strangest coincidence — a children’s book about Fala — The True Story of Fala.
“— She is riveted by it — and as I told her I was going to write you today — insisted on sending her own contribution — in case you wonder what this wrinkled piece of paper is. I must summon the assistance of Mr. West Wade and Bruce to answer all her questions about him.
“With my appreciation — and deepest good wishes always”
Jacqueline Kennedy
(Franklin D. Roosevelt Presidential Library and Museum: Handwritten Letter From Jacqueline Kennedy To Eleanor Roosevelt Enclosing Note From Young Caroline Kennedy About Fala (2 Pages), May 31, 1962)
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Some Alone Time
“Here at home, our family of children grows. We have five around the place today, ranging from two to eleven in age. Our most independent character is a three-year old who thinks nothing of deciding to walk by himself from one cottage to the other, three quarters of a mile through the woods, up a steep hill. He seems quite amazed when anyone goes to look for him, and acts a little bit the way Fala does when that little dog runs away to hunt in the swamps. With Fala, I call futilely for a long time, and after I go home in disgust he comes serenely trotting down the road, looking to right and left as much as to say: ‘Look at me, I have been on an adventure all alone!’ “ — Eleanor Roosevelt, My Day, July 7, 1945
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‘Fala nearly wagged his tail off’
“I was sorry that the President had such a short stay in Warm Springs, Ga., but I think the change was good for him. He told me they had a wonderful dinner at the Foundation on Saturday night, and he had a good sleep in his cottage.
“For once, he left his dog, Fala, behind. I imagine he thought they are apt to get ticks in the South, and that the trip was not going to be long enough to warrant so much time spent on the train for a little dog. However, left behind, Fala was a very pathetic and lonely object. He deigned to spend his nights in my room and woke me up in the mornings by pawing the side of my bed and by little yaps to attract my attention. When the President came in, Fala nearly wagged his tail off.” — Eleanor Roosevelt, My Day, Dec. 4, 1941
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President Franklin D. Roosevelt and Eleanor with Meggie 1933. Meggie famously bit Senator Hattie Caraway.
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Fala In Retirement
In April of 1945, President Roosevelt died in Warm Springs, Georgia. Fala attended the funeral but seemed lost without his beloved master. He went to live with Mrs. Roosevelt at Val-Kill, where he spent his time running, playing and chasing squirrels and cats. Eventually Mrs. Roosevelt brought Fala’s grandson, Tamas McFala to live at Val-Kill, and be Fala’s playmate. Sometimes they would run off together only to come home hours later covered with burrs and mud. All in all it was a restful retirement from his days at the feet of President Roosevelt in the glare of the Washington spotlight. On April 5, 1952, Fala passed away and was buried in the Rose Garden next to the sun dial not far from the graves of President and Mrs. Roosevelt on what would have been his twelfth birthday April 7, 1952. — Franklin D. Roosevelt Library and Museum
Photo: Eleanor Roosevelt, Fala (right), and his grandson Tamas on the sleeping porch at Val-Kill cottage, Hyde Park, New York, 1951
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Eternal Hope
“In the midst of her labors, Eleanor took unexpected comfort in Fala’s return to the Roosevelt household. Shortly after the funeral, Jimmy Roosevelt had written Margaret Suckley and asked her to send Fala back. ‘In talking to my sister and brother, we all feel very disappointed that Fala is not staying with Mother,’ Jimmy wrote. Fala was part of the family,” and it would make Mother ‘very happy to have him back.’ Suckley agreed, and Fala came to live at Val-Kill. Soon he and Eleanor became inseparable. Fala accompanied her on her walks through the woods, sat beside her chair in the living room, and greeted her at the door when she came home. ‘No one was as vociferously pleased to see me as Fala,’ she noted proudly after a trip to New York. Still, Fala missed the president. When General Eisenhower came to Hyde Park to lay a wreath on Roosevelt’s grave, Fala heard the sirens of the motorcade and thought his master was returning. ‘His legs straightened out’ and ‘his ears pricked up,’ Eleanor noted; he was hoping to see his master coming down the drive.” —From “No Ordinary Time” by Doris Kearns Goodwin
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Franklin D. Roosevelt and Eleanor Roosevelt with baby Anna, and dog, Duffy in Campobello, Maine, in 1907.
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Fala Never Forgot
“Readjustments in one’s inner life have to go on forever, I think, but my main decisions probably were made by the end of the first year. It was Fala, my husband’s little dog, who never really readjusted. Once, in 1945, when General Eisenhower came to lay a wreath on Franklin’s grave, the gates of the regular driveway were opened and his automobile approached the house accompanied by the wailing of the sirens of a police escort. When Fala heard the sirens, his legs straightened out, his ears pricked up and I knew that he expected to see his master coming down the drive as he had come so many times. Later, when we were living in the cottage, Fala always lay near the dining-room door where he could watch both entrances just as he did when his master was there. Franklin would often decide suddenly to go somewhere and Fala had to watch both entrances in order to be ready to spring up and join the party on short notice. Fala accepted me after my husband’s death, but I was just someone to put up with until the master should return. Many dogs eventually forget. I felt that Fala never really forgot. Whenever he heard the sirens he became alert and felt again that he was an important being, as he had felt when he was traveling with Franklin. Fala is buried now in the rose garden at Hyde Park and I hope he is no longer troubled with the need for any readjustments.” —From “On My Own” by Eleanor Roosevelt, 1958
