Evening star., 1938-06-12
BY JOHN LEAR,
Associated Press Star Writer.

Associated Press Star Writer.
An era in the life of President
will end next Saturday with the we'd
ding of Anne Lindsay Clark and John
Roosevelt
IT is an era which comes but once
In the life of every father-the era
of the children"
3 1t is a glad era and sadera. Il
begins when the first child is born
and ends when the last one sets UP
. his own home in marriage.
For President Roosevelt the era en-
" compasses 80 years from the day little
Anna arrived.
Anna's birth came Is months after
Franklin and Eleanor Roosevelt ex-
changed VOWS in a private home in
New York in 1905 and then watched
Uncle Ted" president Theodore
Roosevelt to those outside the family
steal their show at the wedding re-
e.. ception
For the next 10 years. as Mrs. Roose-
welt put it in her autobiography, This
Is My Story: The bride was always
Just getting over having . baby or
about to have one"
- Anna Was First.
First was Anna, whose bowling
fought her mother to get the gas
bubbles off baby's stomach before hav-
ing dinner guests on nurses night out.
The next year there was James, who
cried all night the first winter be-
cause his food didn't suit. The neigh
bors complicated things by threat
entng to call the Society for the Pre-
vention of Cruelty to Children when
Anna loudly expressed her dislike for
the wire window box rigged up for
her afternoon maps.
In 1909 came the first Franklin. To
his mother he was "the biggest and
most beautiful of all the babies. He
died of the flu before eight months
passed.
Elliott came in September of 1910
in the midst of his fathers first cam
paign for the New York Senate. He
and the other children almost choked
to death from cigar smoke in Albany
there were so many political confer
ences in papa's study-until their
rooms were moved from the second
floor to the third.
Franklin, Jr., Arrives.
The Wilson-for President campaign
passed and 1913 arrived. Anna started
> to school. Her father became Assist
ant Secretary of the Navy. Her
mothers life turned into a continual
round of official family" calls. There
had to be inspection trips, without
neglecting the children. Elliott needed
attention because his legs were bowed
and required braces. James had a
heart murmur, and had to be carried
up steps. Anna carried cotton for her
ears in case she had to listen to any
more l7-gun salutes in papa's honor.
Franklin, jr., was born in August of
1914, the year Franklin, sr., lost his
race for the United States Senate.
Two years later came the last child,
John.
The following 10 years were "the
growing years" for the children. The
school years. The war years. The
flu years The measles years. The
years that saw the senior Roosevelt
beaten for Vice President. The years
that brought him back to private law
practice and into infantile paralysis.
The years when he sat helpless on the
library floor and the children, unwit-
ting, roughed him in play.
His First Grandchild.
BY 1926 the first child was ready 10
leave. Anna's engagement was an
nounced. In June she married a New
York broker, Curtis Bean Dali. Be-
fore her father became Governor, two
years later. she presented him with his
first grandchild, another Anna. the
"Sistie" of the subsequent White House
"Sistie and Buzzie" combination.
Elliott married before the Governor
was elected President. So did James,
who took to wife Betsy, daughter of
famous brain surgeon, DR.. Harvey
Gushing. In 1887, Franklin, jr., too,
was gone. And now the last child,
John, will be married next Saturday