America’s pioneering former First Lady, Eleanor Roosevelt, recounted her visit to Saint John, New Brunswick in her syndicated My Day column – read by countess thousands of Canadians and Americans each time it appeared – on this date in 1956. New Brunswick, of course, held a special place in the hearts of both her and her husband, the late Franklin Roosevelt. Their summer home was located on the province’s Campobello Island. You will find her column below.
Eleanor Roosevelt: Tuesday morning turned out to be a beautiful one for flying and I had a wonderful plane trip from here to Boston, then along the Maine coast to Saint John, New Brunswick, Canada. My husband and the boys were very familiar with the Coast, for they used to go on cruises there together, and recently my son, James, went up to St. John to speak. But I never remember being there before.
It is a charming city and I was highly honored to be received by the Mayor and his Council and to be the first woman ever given the freedom of the city. I shall put my certificate attesting to this honuor in the Library at Hyde Park.
After the ceremonies at City Hall, I was taken to the Lieutenant-Governor's house, and there we had a pleasant tea. I was delighted to see so many people who had come to Campobello when the memorial to my husband was unveiled. And I was especially pleased to find that one of the policemen who greeted me with a warm welcome once had been with the mounted division which watched over my husband on the island. He remembered our picnics on the beach with hot dogs and coffee for all.
I had time to rest and dress before the evening dinner, which was in the Admiral Beatty Hotel where I was staying. The hotel management made me most comfortable there and told me that I had the same room that my son, James, had a year ago.
The Mental Health Association, for which I was speaking in St. John, is just being reactivated and everyone seemed pleased with the amount of interest shown at the dinner. My own subject was "International Tensions" and their relation to the whole question of mental health. I told them that I had been to a similar meeting Monday in New York City, an indication that both Canada and the U.S. seem to be making an effort to emphasize the importance of the layman's understanding of his part in mental health...
I flew back Wednesday morning on an equally clear day and the pilot was kind enough to take us right along Campobello Island, where I spent so many happy summers when my children were young.
Arthur Milnes is an accomplished public historian and award-winning journalist. He was research assistant on The Rt. Hon. Brian Mulroney’s best-selling Memoirs and also served as a speechwriter to then-Prime Minister Stephen Harper and as a Fellow of the Queen’s Centre for the Study of Democracy under the leadership of Tom Axworthy. A resident of Kingston, Ontario, Milnes serves as the in-house historian at the 175 year-old Frontenac Club Hotel.