Elliott Roosevelt was Theodore Roosevelt’s brother, godfather to Franklin D. Roosevelt, and father of one of the world’s most admired women-Eleanor Roosevelt.  He was also a drunkard, drug addict, and fathered an illegitimate son with one of his servants. He died at thirty-four, leaving Eleanor – whom John Matteson refers to as having lived a childhood of “Dickensian horrors” -an orphan at age eleven. But Eleanor remained devoted to Elliott for the rest of her life. For all his considerable faults, Elliott was a gentle soul beloved by all and a tenderly loving father to Eleanor. He instilled in her a sense of compassion that became her bedrock quality, leading her to become known as “the First Lady of the World.”