A Correspondent’s Chronicling Was Eleanor Roosevelt’s Window Into World War II

White House History Quarterly takes readers to an intimate tea gathering between Eleanor Roosevelt and famous wartime reporter Ernie Pyle.

Eleanor Roosevelt on trip to Central and South America in March 1944. (Photo: The National Archives and Records Administration)

A 1943 gathering over tea at the White House between Eleanor Roosevelt and American wartime correspondent Ernie Pyle was designed by the first lady to meet the man famously dubbed a “G.I.’s Best Friend.” The first lady, an admitted fan, followed Pyle’s work that intimately profiled “ordinary” soldiers fighting in Europe.

She was so taken with his work she encouraged the reporter at the tea to take his talents to the South Pacific to capture more stories. In fact, this was the main motivation for Mrs. Roosevelt’s meeting with Pyle, writes Mary Jo Binker in the article “The First Lady and the G.I.’s Best Friend: Ernie Pyle Joins Eleanor Roosevelt for Tea at the White House” in the latest edition of White House History Quarterly that led up to the 80th anniversary of V-E Day on May 8, 2025.