Fifty Years After Her Death, Eleanor Roosevelt\'s Admirers Will Celebrate Her Life

David W. Dunlap/The New York Times The statue of Eleanor Roosevelt by Penelope Jencks, in Riverside Park at West 72nd Street, will be the setting of a memorial ceremony on Wednesday marking the 50th anniversary of her death.

“A light has gone out of our lives,” Mayor Robert F. Wagner said. “Something has died for each and every one of us.”

The occasion, 50 years ago Wednesday, was the death in New York City of Eleanor Roosevelt, who had been first lady far longer than any other woman in American history and then fashioned an even mor e important role for herself as a champion of international human rights.

A portrait by Clarence E. Premo was used on the 5-cent postage stamp that honored Mrs. Roosevelt a year after her death.

Mayor Wagner was not the only mourner in November 1962 to speak of Mrs. Roosevelt in luminous terms. Adlai E. Stevenson, the United States representative to the United Nations and two-time Democratic presidential candidate, said, “She would rather light a candle than curse the darkness, and her glow has warmed the world.”

Though she was far from universally popular, Mrs. Roosevelt had transcended her upper-class background to command the affection of the poor and vanquished. Her creed was simply this, Mr. Stevenson said: “I cannot, for my nation, my culture, my class, demand privileges which I refuse other groups.”

Mrs. Roosevelt's admirers and family members believe that she still commands enough affection to warrant an informal 50th-anniversary memorial gathering. It is to occur at 11 a.m. Wednesday, around the statue of Mrs. Roosevelt by Penelope Jencks that contemplatively greets visitors to Riverside Park at its West 72nd Street entrance.

Speakers will include her biographer Blanche Wiesen Cook and one of her grandchildren, Franklin D. Roosevelt III. The event is open to the public. It has been organized by Herbert Zohn, who was largely responsible in the 1990s for the creation of the monument to Mrs. Roosevelt.

Acknowledging that New Yorkers had plenty of other things on their minds this week, Mr. Zohn said of the event, “We don't know what it will hold, but we hope it will be meaningful.”

“Her aura,” Mr. Zohn said, “should be remembered.”