Who was Bernard Baruch?
Mrs. MORRIS: Oh, I’m sorry. Bernard Baruch was c–a so-called speculator. He’s a man who knew Wall Street who became something of an–of an adviser on economics to presidents–Presidents Wilson and President Roosevelt and Hoover and various others. But she fell in love with him because he was much older. She’d h–she’d lost her father when she was very young, so he was something of a father figure as well as a mentor. He taught her about politics and economics. And also he was not obtainable. So anybody who was not attainable for Clare became the one that wa–was most desired. So although they had a small fling in the–in the early ’30s, it didn’t go on for very long because he was so much older than she was. LAMB: And he was married. Mrs. MORRIS: And he was married, and he had grown children. And he was not in love with her either. He said to a friend–a mutual friend who passed the word on that although he was fond of Clare his heart was not involved. LAMB: Joseph Kennedy. Mrs. MORRI
Bernard M. Baruch (1870-1965) was an “elder statesman” and financier who advised every President from Woodrow Wilson to Lyndon Johnson. Baruch was born in Camden, SC and was the son of a doctor who served in the Civil War. (Photo of Baruch courtesy of absoluteastronomy.com Baruch made his fortune on Wall Street and lived primarily in New York City but he maintained strong ties to South Carolina. In 1905, he purchased Hobcaw Barony, a plantation outside of Georgetown, SC which served as his hunting retreat and as a retreat for some of the world’s great statesmen such as Winston Churchill and Franklin Roosevelt. Baruch’s service to the country largely took the form of an informal advisor. He was known as “the Park Bench Statesman” for his practice of meeting people on a park bench in Lafayette Park in Washington, across from the White House. He also traveled with President Wilson to the Paris Peace Conference after World War I. He also served as a member of Franklin Roosevelt’s “Brain Tr
