Birth Name: | Anna Eleanor Dall |
Birth Date: | 25 March 1927 |
Birth Place: | New York City, U.S. |
Children: | 3 |
Alma Mater: | State University of New York |
Parents: | |
Relatives: | See Roosevelt family |
Anna Eleanor Roosevelt Seagraves (Dall; born March 25, 1927) is an American librarian, educator, historian, and editor. She is the eldest grandchild of Franklin D. Roosevelt. Her parents are Anna Roosevelt Dall and her first husband Curtis Bean Dall.[1] She is usually known as "Sistie", "Ellie" or "Eleanor".
Sistie, as she was affectionately called in the press during her grandparents' tenure in the White House, was named for her mother and for her maternal grandmother, Eleanor Roosevelt. When her parents separated in 1933 (they divorced in 1934), she, along with her mother and brother Curtis, moved into the White House with her grandparents. Her mother would later remarry two more times and a younger half-brother, John Roosevelt Boettiger would join the family in 1939.[2]
Seagraves completed three years of college at Reed College before her marriage and later earned a master's degree in Library Science from the State University of New York at Geneseo in 1964.[3] [4] [5]
Seagraves is one of the few living Roosevelt family members who witnessed events firsthand during the White House years. Seagraves also is one of the few surviving people who witnessed her grandmother Eleanor Roosevelt's diplomacy. Each year, when Seagraves' grandmother held a picnic at Val-Kill for delinquent boys, she assisted Mrs. Roosevelt with these events. She was close to Eleanor Roosevelt throughout her life.
Seagraves has enjoyed a career as an educator and librarian. She edited Delano's Voyages of Commerce and Discovery (Berkshire House Publishers, 1994), drawn from the journals of Amasa Delano, as well as The Val-Kill Cook Book (The Eleanor Roosevelt Center at Val-Kill, 1984). Seagraves concentrated her career on keeping alive many of the causes her grandmother began and supported. She is an active participant in Democratic Party events in her area, and endorsed Barack Obama for the 2008 Presidential campaign. At, Seagraves resides with her husband in Maryland.
On July 7, 1948, she married Van H. Seagraves. Together, they had three children: