PRESS RELEASE:

For more than 30 years, she was the most powerful woman in America. Niece of one president and wife of another, Eleanor Roosevelt was at the center of much of last century's history. A charismatic woman of charm and contradictions, aristocratic in voice and manner, she was also "tough as nails," says historian Geoffrey Ward. "In fact, she was one of the best politicians of the 20th century."

AMERICAN EXPERIENCE reprises "Eleanor Roosevelt," a provocative portrait of the woman who was called "the best of the Roosevelts." Directed and written by Sue Williams ("Mary Pickford"), and produced by Kathryn Dietz ("Mary Pickford") and Sue Williams, the program airs on KUED-Channel 7 Monday, March 10, at 8 p.m. Alfre Woodard narrates.

Few people were neutral about her. To admirers, she was a woman of immense moral and physical courage. Through her newspaper columns, radio broadcasts and public appearances, she seemed to be a familiar friend. Her detractors saw her as a dangerous meddler, a dilettante, a traitor to her class. Political cartoonists had a field day with her buck teeth and weak-chinned profile. Some criticized her leftist leanings and her "overreaching" role as First Lady; others derided her as a political naïf. Determined to live life on her own terms, Eleanor Roosevelt traveled far from her sheltered beginnings to become one of America's most admired figures.