Lorena Hickok, popularly known as "Hick", was born in East Troy in Walworth County, Wisconsin. During childhood, Hickok experienced a troubled family life, characterized by abuse, unemployment, and repeated moves. She left home at the age of fourteen to work as a maid until her mother's cousin, Ella Ellis, took her in. While living with Ellis, Hickok finished high school and enrolled at Lawrence College in Appleton, Wisconsin. Hickok never adjusted to college and dropped out after one year. She was then hired to cover train arrivals and departures and write personal interest stories at The Battle Creek Evening News. To attempt to follow in the footsteps of her role model, novelist Edna Ferber, she eventually joined the Milwaukee Sentinel as its society editor, but moved on to the city beat, where she developed a knack as an interviewer. Hickok then worked in Minneapolis and New York, but was unsuccessful in such a big city and was fired after just a month. She returned to Minneapolis to work for the Minneapolis Tribune and enrolled at the University of Minnesota, but ended up leaving upon being forced to live in a women's dormitory. She stayed with the Minneapolis Tribune, where she was given opportunities unusual for a female reporter. She had a by-line and was the paper's chief reporter, covering politics and football and preparing editorials. She left the Minneapolis Tribune in 1926. After a period of travel, and ill health, she went to New York. After working for "The Mirror" for about a year, Hickok landed a job with the Associated Press in 1928, where she became one of the wire service's most valued correspondents. She reported in a prominent way on such huge events as the Lindbergh kidnapping. Her specialty was campaign reporting, often sharing campaign trails with her male colleagues. Hickok first met Eleanor Roosevelt in the summer of 1928, at the Democratic National Committee headquarters in New York City. In 1932, she convinced her editors to allow her to cover Eleanor Roosevelt during the presidential campaign and for the four month interregnum period. Through that experience, she and Mrs. Roosevelt developed a close relationship. Because she felt she could no longer be objective in covering the Roosevelts, Hickok left the Associated Press in 1933. Eleanor Roosevelt then helped her obtain the position as a Chief Investigator for the Federal Emergency Relief Administration (FERA), where she conducted some fact-finding missions. During this time, she also provided public relations advice to the first lady. She is credited with pushing Roosevelt to write her own newspaper column, "My Day", and to hold weekly press conferences specifically for female journalists. During her time with FERA, Hickok developed a dislike of reporters. In one report to Hopkins in 1934, she wrote, “Believe me, the next state administrator who lets out any publicity on me is going to get his head cracked...” Hickok had also vented to Hopkins's secretary, Kathryn Godwin, about how she was “fed-up with publicity”. She said, “I want to kick every reporter I see. Which is a state for me to get into, since I’ll probably be back in business myself after I get through with this.” Two weeks after writing the letter to Hopkins, Hickok saw an article in Time Magazine, which referred to her in some not–so-ladylike terms. Referring to that article, Hickok had said to the Godwin, “I suppose I am a ‘rotund lady with a husky voice’ and ‘baggy clothes,’ [Time's words], but honestly don’t believe my manner is ‘peremptory.’” Hickok went on to say that, if they felt that way about her then, “Why the Hell CAN’T they leave me alone? In a letter (February, 1934) to Godwin, Hickok admitted that the Time article had upset her: “… that damned article in Time Magazine, has made something of a wreck out of me … as I came in, they handed me, with beaming smiles, a copy of Time. I read the thing and wanted to curse until the air was blue." March through July 1934 was marked by highs and lows in Hickok’s life. In several letters between the women, Eleanor spoke of “longing to kiss and hold” Lorena in her arms. Yet, in another letter from Eleanor, in May 1934, Eleanor implied that she did not like the instability of Lorena’s life, and found it discomforting, “saying that she was tired of the ‘bad things’ that Lorena’s temperamental nature did to her (her being Hickok).” Eleanor even told Hickok that she thought Hickok was in a mental and emotional depression. Hickok became the executive secretary of the Women's Division of the Democratic National Committee (DNC) in 1940, and from early January, 1941 until shortly after FDR's fourth inauguration in 1945, she lived at the White House. During her time there, Hickok's nominal address was at the Mayflower Hotel in DC, where she met most people. Also during this time, she formed an intense friendship with the Honorable Marion Janet Harron, a United States Tax Court judge who was ten years younger than her and almost the only person to visit her at the White House. When Hickok's diabetes worsened in 1945, she was forced to leave her position with the DNC. Two years later, Eleanor Roosevelt helped her obtain a position with the New York State Democratic Committee. When Hickok's health continued to decline to the point where she became frail and partially blind, she moved to Hyde Park to be closer to Mrs. Roosevelt. She lived in a cottage on the Roosevelt estate, where she died in 1968. Hickok wrote several books, co-authoring "Ladies of Courage" with Eleanor Roosevelt in 1954, and following that with "The Story of Franklin D. Roosevelt," (1956), "The Story of Hellen Keller" (1958), "The Story of Eleanor Roosevelt" (1959), and several more. Hickok willed her personal papers to the FDR Library, in Hyde Park, New York, part of the US National Archives. Her donation was contained in 18 filing boxes that, according to the provisions of her will, were to be sealed until 10 years after her death. In early May, 1978, Doris Faber, as part of research for a projected short biography of Eleanor Roosevelt, became perhaps the first person outside the National Archives to open these boxes, and was astounded to discover that they contained 2336 letters from Mrs. Roosevelt to Lorena, most of them dated in the 1930s, and continuing right up to Mrs. Roosevelt's death in 1962. A key passage from just one early 12-page handwritten missive to Lorena from Eleanor sheds light on their relationship: Goodnight, dear one. I want to put my arms around you and kiss you at the corner of your mouth. And in a little more than a week now — I shall! It is not universally accepted by historians that the two were romantically connected. Hickok's papers remain at the Franklin D. Roosevelt Presidential Museum, where they are available to the public. This is your new blog post. Click here and start typing, or drag in elements from the top bar.
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |
DawnWomen's history geek, mom, lesbian, theologian, dreamer. Archives
February 2016
Categories
All
|