LESBIAN PORTRETS (4) The first lady of the U.S.A.

The perennial argument about whether a relationship between two women was an old-fashioned ''romantic friendship'' or a...
fully fledged romance always flares up between opposing sides whenever ''evidence'' is discovered that sheds new light on the sexuality of a famous woman. A case in point is the relationship between First Lady Eleanor Roosevelt, wife of legendary President Franklin D Roosevelt, and journalist Lorena Hickok.  The Roosevelts enjoyed a relatively happy marriage, until Eleanor discovered her husband was having a passionate and intense affair with a woman who was her social secretary.  Not long afterwards, she met Hickok.  Their subsequent relationship was dismissed by the Roosevelt family and Eleanor's official biographer as ''romantic friendship'' nothing more. 
The truth is a little more complex.  During the '30s, Lorena secretly lived at the White House with Eleanor for more than four years.  And, more than 20 years after Eleanor's death, the correspondence between the two women rather contradicts the ''official'' view. ''Oh! I want to put my arms around you, I ache to hold you close'', Eleanor wrote to Lorena. ''Your ring is a great comfort.  I look at it and think she does love me or I wouldn't be wearing it!''.
From the book
LESBIAN PORTRETS
by Rose Collis
M.Q.Publications, 1997