ROOSEVELT, Franklin D.

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Photograph inscribed to his personal secretary Grace Tully. Inscribed to Grace Tully: "For Grace from Franklin D. Roosevelt [arrow in Roosevelt's hand to someone taking notes] not you!". Tully along with Marguerite LeHand was Roosevelt's principal secretary during his years as president.The photograph shows a relaxed and jovial FDR, taken sometime during his second term and likely at his Hyde Park residence in the Hudson Valley. The condition of his legs is clearly discernible beneath the trousers - an aspect of his condition he normally took pains to conceal. Just as visible is the mole over FDR's left eye, which he had removed in 1940, and which some biographers speculate might have been a melanoma.The use of female secretaries broke with tradition, with all prior presidential secretaries men. But LeHand's connection with FDR went back to 1920, before his polio attack, and she was a consistent and loyal companion through the gruelling early years of his recovery. Tully's tenure dated from his 1928 campaign for governor of New York. When he won the presidency in 1932, Roosevelt had no hesitation about bringing these two loyal, trusted, and discreet assistants - both Irish Catholics from humble, working-class origins - into his inner circle at the White House.Tully "occupied a front row seat at momentous events as secretary and friend to the man she called 'the Boss'. To her, he had dictated letters to kings and to generals, manuscripts for his radio fireside chats and such h

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