Mother of US President. Sara Delano Roosevelt was the mother of Franklin Delano Roosevelt, the 32nd President of the United States, and the only president to be elected to four terms. She was born on September 21st, 1854 at the Delano Estate in Newburgh, New York, to Warren Delano, and Catherine Robbins Lyman. Her siblings were Susan Delano, Louise Delano, Deborah Delano Forbes, Annie Delano Hitch, Warren Delano, Warren Delano III, Sara Ann Delano, Phillipe de la Noye Delano, Frederick Adrian Delano, Laura Delano, and Katherine Delano Collier. She was descended of old New York Dutch and Hudson Valley pioneers as well as Mayflower passengers Robert Cushman and Richard Warren, the latter of which her father and grandfather were named after. Her father owned a fleet of whaling vessels whose home port was Fairhaven, MA, near New Bedford. He was involved with the China clipper trade as well as real estate, and the Delanos were considered among the wealthy families of their time. Warren lost most of his fortune in a financial panic, but, according to Sara's obituary in The New York Times, recouped quickly in China. The family owned a home in Paris, France, where Sara once saw Empress Eugenie, wife of Napoleon III, out riding and surrounded by her courtiers. Eugenie waved to her. She studied in Paris and Berlin and was noted for her beauty and poise as a society debutante. She married at the age of 26 (considered late for her time), on October 7th, 1880, to James Roosevelt at Springwood, the Roosevelt family estate. James Roosevelt made his fortune in the China trade and American finance, according to The New York Times. He was a widower twenty-seven years her senior and father of a son her age, James (who would go on to marry Helen Astor, a granddaughter of John Jacob Astor). James and Sara met at a dinner party given by the parents of President Theodore Roosevelt. On January 30th, 1882, their son Franklin was born. He was named for an uncle of Sara's, Franklin Hughes Dean (who married Laura Astor, another granddaughter of John Jacob Astor). She was the dominant force in FDR's life. Although FDR had a nanny, Sara spent much time with him. She home schooled him and taught him the life of the rich: He learned to ride, hunt, play polo, and lawn tennis. Thanks to his European travels, he was fluent in German and French. Her husband died in 1900 when FDR was 18 and attending Harvard University. He left her the use of the 1,200-acre Roosevelt estate on the Hudson for the duration of her life, after which it went to FDR upon her death. After her husband's death, she opted to live near FDR because she did not want to return to an empty house. She objected to her son's engagement to his fifth cousin, Anna Eleanor Roosevelt, but they were married in March 1905. Sara bought a house for the couple next door to her own, located between Park and Madison Avenues on 65th Street in New York City, according to The New York Times. She was independently wealthy, having inherited almost a million dollars from her father (equivalent to nearly $33 million today). In 1918, Eleanor reportedly found letters indicating that FDR was having an affair. She confronted him with the letters and issued an ultimatum: End the affair or get a divorce. Sara intervened and suggested that a divorce would ruin FDR politically and she threatened to cut him off financially if he divorced Eleanor. On election night, 1933, Sara stated, "I never thought about my son being President. But if he's to be President, he'll be a great one. I know he'll do his best." She was the first woman to see her son elected president since Mary Washington. When FDR ran for reelection, she dismissed the need for another campaign. "I don't think my son should campaign this year. The people know whether they want him for another four years. If they don't, well, he'll get along well enough." She had a book published in 1933 titled, "My Boy Franklin" (credited as "Mrs. James Roosevelt"), which detailed his early life. It was dictated to writer and actress Isabel Leighton (later Bunker) and Gabrielle Forbush, a secretary to reporter and early FDR political advisor, Louis Howe. Forbush would later serve as Chief of the Correspondence Division of the U.S. Treasury Department. In 1934, New York City's Roosevelt Park, in the Lower East Side of the city, was dedicated to her. She gave of her time to numerous charities, organizations, and projects, among them the Huguenot Society of Pennsylvania, the National Navy Club, the Christmas Blind Sale, Young Women's Christian Association (Y.W.C.A.), Boy and Girl Scouts of America, and the Motion Picture Research Council. She had been in poor health during the summer of 1941, but she carried on her usual activities in and around her summer home on Campobello Island, New Brunswick, Canada. The house was bought by her husband in the 1890s, which she left for the last time on September 1st, 1941, for Hyde Park. She collapsed at midnight on September 7th, 1941 and died at 12:15 P. M. that day. The cause of death was attributed to "circulatory collapse due to advanced age," according to family physician Dr. Scott L. Smith. Telegraph companies were swamped with so many condolences for the President that extra operators were hired to handle the volume. She is buried to the left of her husband, the position where she stood at the altar when she was married.