Lucy Mercer Rutherfurd

Lucy Page Mercer Rutherfurd
Lucy Page Mercer, circa 1915
Born	Lucy Page Mercer April 26, 1891 Washington, DC
Died	July 31, 1948 (1948-08-01) (aged 57)
Occupation	dress store worker, secretary
Known for	relationship with Franklin D. Roosevelt, American president
Spouse(s)	Winthrop Rutherfurd

Lucy Page Mercer Rutherfurd (April 26, 1891 – July 31, 1948) was an American woman best known for her affair with future US President Franklin D. Roosevelt.

Lucy Mercer was born to wealthy parents who lost most of their fortune and separated in the years following her birth. Mercer then worked briefly in a dress store before taking a position as the social secretary of Eleanor Roosevelt, Franklin's wife, in 1914. Mercer and Franklin are believed to have begun an affair in mid-1916, when she was 25 and he was 34, and prior to the time that he contracted poliomyelitis. The relationship was discovered by Eleanor in September 1918, when she found a packet of their letters when unpacking his luggage upon his return from an inspection trip to the war zone in Europe while Assistant Secretary of the Navy near the end of the First World War in September 1918. Though Eleanor offered Franklin a divorce and Franklin considered accepting; political, financial, and familial pressures caused him to remain in the marriage. Franklin terminated the affair and promised not to see Mercer again.

Mercer soon married wealthy socialite Winthrop Rutherfurd (1862–1944), a widower then in his fifties, but despite her marriage and Franklin's promise, the two remained in surreptitious, albeit infrequent contact in the three decades that followed. Especially during the War years, Franklin's daughter Anna Roosevelt Halsted arranged for her father to meet with his former mistress, more frequently after Rutherfurd's death in 1944. Mercer was in Warm Springs, Georgia, at the "Little White House" the President's long-time cottage and retreat, at the time of Roosevelt's death in April 1945. He was having his portrait painted, at Mercer's request, by the artist Elizabeth Shoumatoff in the living room – with Mercer and two female cousins attending. While sitting at a card table by the fireplace, reading an upcoming speech, Roosevelt said, "I have a terrific pain in the back of my head." He then slumped forward in his chair, unconscious. Madame Shoumatoff, who maintained close friendships with both Roosevelt and Mercer, rushed Mercer away to avoid negative publicity and implications of infidelity. Mercer's presence in the house was not mentioned in the immediate press reports nor in any of the early published biographies.