The Eleanor Roosevelt Papers, Digital Edition > My Day
My Day by Eleanor Roosevelt

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MEMPHIS, Tenn., Sunday—There is nothing southern about Memphis! The climate was cold and snappy yesterday and made one move quickly, and in order to do just a few of the things that were suggested to me, all of which I would have liked to do, I had to move quickly!

Having picked up a large batch of mail from Washington in St. Louis last night, Mrs. Scheider and I spent no idle moments from the time we had seen the committee of ladies about last night's lecture and been interviewed by the press until lunch was brought in at one-fifteen.

At a quarter to two I started for Judge Camille Kelly's Juvenile Court. There was no session today but I had always wanted to see where this only woman judge of a Juvenile Court in the south presided. It was a cheerful homelike building and one where I imagine a woman like Judge Kelly can do the kind of work that she thinks should be done to save the youth of this country from slipping down grade.

From there we went to the Crippled Children's Hospital, a charming, light, bright, building, a lovely garden at the back and another hospital for adults just a short walk across the children's playground. Adults mean anyone over fourteen. My little friend, Bobby Holland, with his mother beside him, sat up in his bed in the boys' ward. He will soon get his brace off and be able to go home but he has spent six months in this hospital and it speaks well for him that everyone seems to like him. He showed me with pride his scrapbook in which he has collected all his treasures and his mother pointed with pride to a poem which he had written.

Dr. Campbell and the women who started this hospital with only $12,000 must feel proud of their achievements.

From there we went to a big building on the state fair grounds where the NYA youngsters were working on floats for a children's parade which takes place here next week. It must be a unique occassion and something which is peculiar to the City of Memphis. The floats represent nursery tales such as "The Three Little Pigs and the Big Bad Wolf," toys or fairy stories and hundreds and hundreds of electric lights will illuminate them.

Then we went off to the county penal farm. This is certainly a model farm and I have seen nothing like it in any other county. It is a model state institution on a smaller scale. There are separate buildings for men and women and there is work provided for everyone. The big farm with its wonderful herd of Jersey cows provides much of the food which seems to be very good.

I wanted to play with all the calves, they were so attractive and they finally let me name one after myself because I had admired her mother! The county hospital which is really the home for the indigent aged we did not visit, but it also looked like a model institution. On the way back we stopped at a Negro school built by WPA labor where the NYA youngsters carried out a garden and canning project for the benefit of their school lunches which would have done credit to any county 4-H Club. A glimpse at a housing project and a presentation by some art students of some of their work, and here endeth a full afternoon! A speech last night and at seven o'clock this morning we left for Pickwick Dam.

E.R.


Names and Terms Mentioned or Referenced

Geographic
  • Memphis (TN, United States) [ index ]


About this document

My Day by Eleanor Roosevelt, November 22, 1937

Roosevelt, Eleanor, 1884-1962
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Digital edition created by The Eleanor Roosevelt Papers Project The George Washington University 312 Academic Building 2100 Foxhall Road, NW Washington, DC 20007

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Digital edition published 2008, 2017 by
The Eleanor Roosevelt Papers Project

Available under licence from the Estate of Anna Eleanor Roosevelt.

Published with permission from the Estate of Anna Eleanor Roosevelt.

MEP edition publlished on June 30, 2008.

TEI-P5 edition published on April 28, 2017.

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Transcription created from a photocopy of a draft version of a My Day column instance archived at the Franklin D. Roosevelt Library. My Day column draft dated November 21, 1937, FDR Library, Hyde Park, NY
TMsd, 21 November 1937, AERP, FDRL