Eleanor Roosevelt (center) is fully fed and feted at Bowdoin’s Delta Upsilon Fraternity House in Brunswick. File photo

On Saturday morning, Dec. 12, 1942, three young men stood upon the platform of the railroad station in Brunswick. Behind these young men stood one Secret Service agent, a handful of dignitaries and nearly 200 anxious locals.

America’s Great Depression was over, yet the country’s fight in World War II had just begun its second year, and now the longest-serving first lady in American history was coming to town.

These were unusual times, and Eleanor Roosevelt was an unusual first spouse. Outspoken and lively in social activism, she was vigorous and trendsetting, and the busiest and most modern first lady in United States history.

Roosevelt’s arrival was meant to be a quiet one, and her Secret Service agent often faced many challenges with this particular first lady. Their visit to Brunswick would be no different.

Although an approved automobile was ready and waiting for Eleanor, the first lady had plans of her own. Just as she was about to get into her secured vehicle, Eleanor impulsively changed direction and got into the car of her three-man welcoming committee; a band of Bowdoin College frat boys who had invited the first lady to speak at their 15th Annual Fraternity Lecture.

Once the official Bowdoin greeting with Bowdoin President Kenneth Sills was concluded, Mrs. Roosevelt was given an automobile tour of the campus, the town and the Brunswick Naval Air Station where she gauged the Navy’s progress in its construction.

First lady Eleanor Roosevelt visits Bowdoin College in 1942. File photo

Back on campus, Eleanor then awarded a young Portland student, Lewis P. Ficket, the award for winning Bowdoin’s Interscholastic Debating Contest.

Roosevelt was then whisked-off to “a formal banquet” at the Delta Upsilon Fraternity House where she was fully fed and feted along with a room full of state dignitaries, Bowdoin College faculty and alums.

By late afternoon, Eleanor addressed a crowd of “more than 1,200” at the First Parish Church. There, President Sills led the discussion and introduced the first lady as one of “the greatest women in the world today.”

In her talk titled “English Youth in the War,” Roosevelt discussed the war effort and what she observed during her tour of war-torn England. She also talked of the responsibilities of both British and American youth to their countries in a time of war.

Roosevelt’s lecture was said to have been delivered “as easily and directly as if in a drawing room with only a few friends.” But this talk wasn’t the end of her evening.

After departing the First Parish Church, Eleanor was escorted back to the Delta Upsilon Fraternity House to have a “private and intimate” chat with her young hosts.

Seated upon a comfortable couch, in a room bordered with wood paneled walls, these young male students surrounded their older female guest. Then, in gentlemanly fashion, the frat boys began their barrage of questions, which “Mrs. Roosevelt answered … with care, being certain that her reply was thoroughly clear” before the next question was asked.

The queries being posed by these soon-to-serve war draftees and volunteers were serious questions. Eleanor talked of the threat to England, to the world and to America, and she spoke of how “we must each do our bit” to aid in the war effort.

Eleanor spoke with these boys as a mother would to her own children.

“Do your work at college, and do it well,” she advised. “The country will depend on your education” to meet the needs of the United States in this technology-driven war “and the future decisions to be made” with post-war planning.

By the next morning, Eleanor and her small entourage boarded a southbound train headed for New York City. Yet, the first lady still had one task left on her Brunswick trip, and that was to write about her visit in her daily syndicated newspaper column, “My Day.”

“One of the boys at Bowdoin asked me whether I found it any different talking to young men or young women,” Roosevelt wrote. “I am afraid I am just incurably fond of being with young people … but I do not find that I like one any better than the other.”

And she explained, “there is an element of seriousness in any meeting with young people,” however, these “… boys are going out to fight … so that we may all live in a world where freedom exists.” And she added, “… I spent a most delightful time with them.”

Explaining why she spoke so at length with these inquisitive students, she wrote, “It is urgent that the boys should know just what kind of a world they are fighting to preserve and build.”

Though many war-time stories have emanated from Maine’s Midcoast, American first lady Eleanor Roosevelt’s visit is certainly one of the more delightful of our Stories From Maine.

Historian Lori-Suzanne Dell has authored five books on Maine history and administers the popular “Stories From Maine” page on Facebook, YouTube and Instagram.