GALLERY: A Conversation with the Roosevelts

On Friday June 12, 1936 President Franklin D. Roosevelt visited the Centennial Exposition at Fair Park as part of a pre re-election campaign swing through the South.

His car entered through the gate by the Auditorium and continued down First Avenue, turning left on Grand, past the Federal building and the Hall of State before entering the Cotton Bowl to a crowd of 50,000 where he gave a thirty-minute speech, which was broadcast on national network radio, ending it with “I salute the Empire of Texas”.

On March 21, the Roosevelts returned to Fair Park. Dallas Historical Society hosted a tribute to the Roosevelt legacy with an exclusive evening “From Hyde Park to Fair Park-A Conversation with the Roosevelt Grandchildren and their Remembrances of Grandmère and Pa.”

Those who participated in the discussion of their personal memories of their grandfather and grandmother, Eleanor, were Anna “Anne” Roosevelt, daughter of James “Jimmy” Roosevelt the first son of FDR and ER, Elliott “Tony” Roosevelt Jr., son of Elliott Roosevelt, second son of FDR and ER, Franklin Roosevelt III “Frank”, son of FDR and ER’s third son Franklin Jr, and Nina Roosevelt Gibson, daughter of John, the youngest child of FDR and ER.

The evening also was the opening of the art exhibit of Franklin and Eleanor’s great-granddaughter and Tony’s daughter, Laura Roosevelt, who is a Dallas native. The Historic American Pop exhibit will be on display in the East Texas Room in the Hall of State for three weeks until April 14. The exhibit is free and open to the public.

(Photos: John R. Strange)

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