Eleanor Roosevelt was never entirely comfortable being a Roosevelt. The famous family burdened her with one tragedy after another, from an absent, alcoholic father to a mother who belittled her appearance, and both parents died young. She was an orphan when she married Franklin, her cousin, whose extramarital affairs pushed them apart early on.
Yet she became a humanitarian, handing the future president the conscience he hadn’t yet developed and dutifully attending teas and receptions for worthy causes despite despising small talk and formality. Which is why, at just such an occasion at Mia, it’s not surprising that she was absorbed in conversation with Richard P. Gale.
The P stood for Pillsbury. Gale was a gentleman farmer who went into politics, serving one term in the Minnesota House, two terms in the U.S. House. He was an influential board president of Mia and a major donor of Japanese art. He was a friendly, down-to-earth guy, and he spent as much time as possible at his family estate of Wickham Farm in Mound. He and Eleanor, two people of great privilege, likely found common ground in their unvarnished devotion to service.
This photo is undated. But the occasion is almost certainly the traveling “Rooseveltiana Exhibit” that Mia hosted in 1961, a year before Eleanor’s death. It featured her husband’s personal effects, from the desk FDR used in college to the bed in which he contracted polio, as well as Roosevelt family heirlooms, including a five-piece silver tea and coffee service monogrammed with the initials of Eleanor’s unpleasant mother.
Marilyn Borea, in white gloves, shaking hands with Eleanor Roosevelt at a Mia reception in 1961.
It’s hard to imagine that Eleanor cared about the tea set or any other Roosevelt trappings. But she was the guest of honor at an opening-night dinner and introduced her son, Elliott, who gave two lectures on the history of the objects.
She was a gracious guest, according to Marilyn Borea, who never expected to meet her. Marilyn was 24 then, an employee of National Life Insurance Co. John Pillsbury was her boss and a Mia patron, and he offered his reception tickets to Marilyn and a coworker. The St. Paul newspaper printed a photo (cropped at right) of Marilyn shaking Eleanor’s hand (her coworker friend is in white behind her). Much later, Marilyn became an ex-oficio trustee of the museum, representing the Minneapolis School Board. “It was such a thrill,” she said recently. “When you shake hands with someone like that, you feel you’re touching a piece of history.”