Eleanor Roosevelt fits the bill

There will finally be a women on American paper currency...and it only took a little over 200 years. The discussion has been, who will it be? Well, I would like for it to be Eleanor Roosevelt. I just can't imagine it being anyone else.

Eleanor was a New York-er of Dutch ancestry, can you get anymore American without being Native, I think not. She was an orphan, suffering the death of both her parents and a sibling. She was thought to have an unconventional beauty that apparently no one appreciated. Her overbearing mother-in-law hated her, thought she wasn't good enough for her philandering son. Eleanor overcame many adversities with an understated grace and she came to symbolize the independent and politically active woman of the 20th century.



Eleanor is the niece, as well as, the wife of US President. As first lady, she gave radio broadcast and wrote a column that appeared in newspapers across the country. Eleanor organized several female only White House conferences. She became a voice for those in need, including working women, African Americans, youth and tenant farmers.



Eleanor Roosevelt once went flying with Amelia Earhart and the Tuskegee Airmen. She defied Birmingham's segregation Laws in a powerful protest. Harry S Truman appointed Roosevelt as a United Nations Delegate. She became the driving force behind the U.N.'s Declaration of Human Rights.

The message of Eleanor's life is that; Life is what you make of it and adversity is only something to be overcome. That sounds $10 bill worthy to me.