Malvina Thompson

Malvina "Tommy" Thompson (January 9, 1892 – April 12, 1953) was a private secretary and personal aide to First Lady Eleanor Roosevelt. She was a pioneer of the East Wing staff, being the first staffer for a First Lady of the United States who was not a social secretary.

Early life Malvina Thompson was born in New York City on January 9, 1892 to Harry and Catherine Thompson. She lived with her family in The Bronx until she married.

Career A high school graduate, she later became a self-taught office secretary, working first for the American Red Cross during the intense years of World War I and the 1918 influenza epidemic, and then for the New York State Democratic Committee. a public school teacher. They had no children, and divorced in 1939. On rare, formal occasions, she would refer to herself or be referred to as Malvina Thompson Schneider, but was usually referred to as Malvina Thompson.

Gossip was also published during the Roosevelt Administration about an alleged relationship between Roosevelt and Thompson. For example, in February 1936 an unnamed reporter for the newsweekly Time referred to Thompson, Nancy Cook, and Marion Dickerman, all of whom lived at various times at Val-Kill, as members of the First Lady's "troupe of handmaidens."

This was how Lorena Hickok summarized Thompson's final years at Val-Kill:

So Mrs. Roosevelt had spent the summer following his death moving out the things the family wanted to keep. And on April 12, 1946, the first anniversary of his death, the big house would be formally accepted by President Truman, on behalf of the American people. Mrs. Roosevelt had settled down with Tommy in a rambling two-story house that she called her "cottage," three miles away from the river and the big house.

Thompson died on April 12, 1953. Following her death, some of Eleanor Roosevelt's relatives and close friends sent her letters and notes of condolence. This correspondence survives and has been catalogued accordingly in the First Lady's section of the Franklin D. Roosevelt Presidential Library.