Lorena Hickok

Lorena A. Hickok
Eleanor Roosevelt (2nd from left) and Lorena Hickok (far right)
Born	Lorena Alice Hickok March 7, 1893 East Troy, Wisconsin
Died	May 1, 1968 (1968-06) (aged 75) Hyde Park, New York
Nationality	American
Occupation	journalist, public relations official
Known for	journalism, relationship with Eleanor Roosevelt

Lorena Alice Hickok (March 7, 1893 – May 1, 1968) was an American journalist known for her close romantic relationship with First Lady Eleanor Roosevelt.

Born in East Troy, Wisconsin to a dressmaker and a dairy-farmer, Hickok had an unhappy childhood marked by isolation and abuse. After her mother's death when Hickok was fourteen, she left home, worked on her own, and completed high school with the help of a cousin. She went into journalism after failing out of college, and soon became a successful reporter for the Minneapolis Tribune and the Associated Press (AP), achieving several firsts for American women journalists. By 1932, she had become the nation's best-known female reporter.

After being assigned to cover Roosevelt during her husband's first presidential campaign, Hickok struck up a close relationship with the soon-to-be First Lady. For several years, the two corresponded almost every day, traveled together, and professed emotional and physical affection for one another. The exact nature of this relationship has been widely discussed by historians; some have argued that the relationship was clearly romantic or erotic, while others have argued that historians have been misled by Roosevelt's exuberant letters. It is known, and was known in the White House press corps at the time, that Hickok was a lesbian. More than 3,000 letters from the pair's correspondence are preserved at the Franklin D. Roosevelt Presidential Library and Museum.

Compromised as a reporter by her personal relationship with Roosevelt, Hickok left the AP and began work as the chief investigator for the Federal Emergency Relief Administration (FERA), a department of Franklin Roosevelt's New Deal. Hickok encouraged or inspired several of Eleanor Roosevelt's initiatives, including her syndicated column, her all-women press conferences, and her planned community at Arthurdale, West Virginia. As Hickok grew more demanding of the First Lady, however, the pair's initial closeness lessened. Following complications with her diabetes, Hickok resigned from FERA in 1936 and worked for three years promoting the 1939 New York World's Fair. From 1940 to 1945, she served as the executive secretary of the Women's Division of the Democratic National Committee, living at the White House for most of this time. As her diabetes steadily worsened, she lived out her final years at Hyde Park to be near Roosevelt, publishing several books.