Morgenthau, Elinor, 1892-1949

Elinor Morgenthau (b. February 19, 1892-d. September 21, 1949) was born in New York City to of Lisette Lehman and Morris Fatman. Her granddfather was Mayer Lehman, a co-founder of Lehman Brother. She graduated from Vassar College with a degree in theater in 1913 and taught acting at the Henry Street Settlement. She married Henry Morgenthau, Jr. in 1915 and settled in Dutchess County, New York where her husband became involved in local politics and operated a farm which they named Fishkill Farms. While in Dutchess County, the Morgenthaus became close friends with Eleanor and Franklin D. Roosevelt; the Morgenthaus were the only Jewish family that the Roosevelts were intimate and Eleanor Roosevelt resigned from the New York Colony Club in protest of the club's refusal to admit her friend. As a close personal friend of Eleanor Roosevelt, Morgenthau was influential in convincing the president to take a more active roll in supporting World War II refugees through the creation of the War Refugee Board. had three children: Henry Morgenthau III, Robert Morgenthau, Joan Morgenthau Hirschhorn; died of a stroke in New York on September 21, 1949