Franklin Roosevelt (1882–1945) was the 26th President of the United States. He was the only President elected to more than two terms, having been elected to four. FDR was stricken with polio in 1918, when he was 36, yet, due to much physical therapy and self will, was still able to serve as President and to mostly conceal his disability, even though he could not walk on his own. He was born into a prominent and wealthy aristocratic New York family, and was doted on as an only child, especially by his mother Sara. He was born in Springwood, the family house on the family estate in Hyde Park, New York, and lived there all of his life. Contrary to his privileged upbringing, he was known for fighting for the rights of the common man and for the working class. To the dismay of his piers, he pushed through major legislation during the Great Depression summed up as the “New Deal.” Among the executive orders and legislation that he passed were the bank holiday that he declared when he first came into office, legislation creating new government agencies, including the Works Progress Administration and the National Recovery Administration, with the intent of creating new jobs for the unemployed. Other legislation, such as the Social Security Act, provided direct assistance to individuals. His optimism and ebullience and economic activism were just the tonic that the country needed after the pessimism of the previous Hoover administration. While the Great Depression did not end until World War II, he got the country moving again and gave people hope. He also anticipated its inevitability of World War II and tried to mobilize for it, despite a strong isolationist sentiment in the United States. He came to the aid of Great Britain and inspired people of the United States with his leadership during the war. He died in office of a cerebral hemorrhage in 1945, shortly before victory later that year. A year after his death, Churchill visited FDR’s grave in Hyde Park and was quoted as saying that when he met Roosevelt, “it was like opening his first bottle of champagne.”