Winston and Franklin

In December 1941, six days after the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor, Winston Churchill boarded a British battleship and sailed in secret to visit President Franklin Delano Roosevelt for planning sessions at the White House. Churchill stayed five weeks, moving into the Rose Bedroom, where he imposed his quirky, obnoxious lifestyle on Roosevelt’s family and staff, and during which time the two leaders lay the foundation for wartime cooperation. 

When I first read about Churchill’s time with Roosevelt, I couldn’t imagine two more different people. To my great surprise, I just read a new book about their mothers, both New Yorkers who it turns out were born the same year and just 80 miles apart. You see, Winston Churchill, apparently the most British of characters, had an American mother.

Canadian author Charlotte Gray has written Passionate Mothers, Powerful Sons: The Lives of Jennie Jerome Churchill and Sara Delano Roosevelt, a fascinating and engaging duel biography of the two women. 

Jennie Jerome Churchill was stunningly beautiful and didn’t hesitate to use her charms to get what she wanted. She needed those charms, because she and her family were often short on money. The life of Winston, her favorite child, revolved around his mother during his early years. 

Sara Delano Roosevelt, by contrast, grew up in one of America’s wealthiest families, the Delanos, who dominated banking, railroads, and shipbuilding. Though quiet on the surface, she skillfully managed the lives of her family and her famous son, including her daughter-in-law Eleanor and her son’s battle with polio.  

Different sons, different mothers—and yet similar in so many ways. It’s intriguing to study the two men, then trace ways in which their mothers shaped and molded them over their lifetimes.