A Secret Stay At The White House Revealed

The hamlet of Long Eddy has a rich and colorful history, including a few years in the 19th century when it was known as Douglas City, the only incorporated city ever in Sullivan County. It also has a captivating link to the Franklin Delano Roosevelt White House – a connection made even more fascinating in that it was kept secret for more than forty years.

The story comes to light now – for the second time – thanks to a synchronicity of events in which The Basket Historical Society, Harold Roeder of Callicoon and my wife Debbie all played major roles.

Debbie returned home one night recently from a meeting of the Upper Delaware Council, where she represents the Town of Highland, anxious to share with me a riveting story she had heard that night from Roeder, a Town of Delaware U.D.C. representative.

It was the story of the Long Eddy secret.

In the spring of 1936, the senior class at Long Eddy High School – all three members – were planning their class trip to Washington, D.C.   One of the seniors, Leon Meyer, had contracted polio as a toddler in 1922 and although he had made great progress over the years dealing with the aftermath of the disease, still had considerable difficulty getting around, requiring leg braces and, on occasion, a wheelchair. This presented a challenge in planning the accommodations for the trip, since not all hotels at the time were equipped to handle such special needs.

One of the Long Eddy teachers, Mrs. Anna Kenney Voigt, decided to write a letter to First Lady Eleanor Roosevelt, who, of course, had firsthand knowledge of such things, and ask for her recommendations for a suitable hotel and transportation that would meet Leon’s special requirements. Mrs. Roosevelt was well known for her meticulous attention to correspondence, so Mrs. Vogt fully anticipated getting a personal letter in return, but was surprised nonetheless when the reply arrived.

Mrs. Roosevelt responded not with a letter, but with a telegram and that telegram did not contain her recommendation for a hotel but instead her insistence that Leon be her guest at the White House for the duration of the class’ stay in Washington.

There was only one condition, the First Lady explained, and that was that the matter be kept in the strictest confidence – that absolutely no one, especially the press, be told that Leon would be a guest in the White House.

And so the Long Eddy High School senior class trip of 1936 turned out to be one of the most incredible experiences that eight people, the three students and five chaperones, could possibly have.

Leon Meyer, classmates John Fransen and Mabel Oestrich and chaperones Willard English and his wife and teachers Anna Voigt, Alma Rescigno and Sydney Miller traveled in a two car convoy to the nation’s capital, arriving at about 9 pm. Pursuant to the First Lady’s direction, Leon was immediately dropped off at the White House, where he slept in the Lincoln bedroom and breakfasted the next morning with the President and Mrs. Roosevelt. Over the next few days he was driven to various points of interest around Washington in FDR’s personal limousine, and even attended the opening day baseball game between the Senators and the New York Yankees of Lou Gehrig, Bill Dickey and a very young Joe DiMaggio, sitting in a private box just a few removed from the President, who threw out the first pitch.

Although the other members of the Long Eddy contingent were also at the baseball game, they were forced to endure the proceedings from a less privileged vantage point. Nor did they get to experience the thrill of eating their meals and sleeping in the White House.

When the class trip ended, Leon and his classmates and teachers were reunited for an uneventful trip home, each bearing a number of gifts presented personally to them by Eleanor Roosevelt. And perhaps the best part of the story is that none of the eight ever breathed a word of the secret the First Lady had requested they keep. That is, until 1980, when longtime WVOS radio news reporter Bruce Wells wrote a detailed account of the adventure in the very first issue of the Basket Historical Society’s newsletter, the Echo.

The Basket Historical Society has recently decided to make all of the back issues of the Echo available for purchase and Harold Roeder had obtained a set. The first story he read in the issue marked Volume One, Number One was headlined The Secret, and told all about the most exciting few days in Leon Meyer’s life.   A lifelong area resident, Roeder recognized many of the names in the story, particularly that of the teacher Alma Rescigno, who would later marry Henry Doyle, who owned the general store in town. Mrs. Doyle taught in the Delaware Valley Central School, where Roeder attended, and her son John was a classmate.

“I was very taken with this story, not only because I knew Mrs. Doyle and Mr. Sydney Miller (another teacher at Long Eddy and participant in the class trip) but because of the outreach shown by the First Lady of the United States to a boy in need from Long Eddy, NY,” Roeder says. “ WOW! I still get goose bumps thinking about it.”

So Roeder couldn’t wait to share the story of “the secret” with his fellow members on the U.D.C. and Debbie couldn’t wait to share it with me. Now I am passing it along in turn.

There is much, much more of interest in the Echo newsletters from 1980 – 2014, and the set is available for just $25.00 plus shipping and handling and is just one of the offerings from the Basket Historical Society that would make a great Christmas gift for Sullivan County history buffs this season. Other offerings include an annual membership in the Society for just $12.00, and copies of the historically significant Basket letters, which together tell the history of the region, which can be purchased for $25.00 plus shipping and handling. To order any or all of these, contact the Basket Historical Society via e-mail at baskethistsociety@gmail.com.

Photo: First Lady Eleanor Roosevelt circa 1936.