They remembered the help in vivid detail, and talked of it—and of FDR—for decades after.
It was not only the “alphabet” programs of the Depression (WPA, NRA, CCC, etc, etc) that made FDR so memorable, of course. Franklin Roosevelt was president during almost all of World War II, with all that fact suggests. Roosevelt was the one American president to be elected a 3rd time (and a 4th!). When he died in 1945, FDR was the only president a very substantial portion of the population had ever known.
Yet with all of this, President Roosevelt was celebrated only on the humble “dime,” the American 10-cent piece? The answer is “yes”—and in that particular fact is much of the charm of this coin.
FDR had been crippled in the 1920s by what was diagnosed as polio. He could not walk without help.
During his lifetime, FDR had founded and supported an anti-polio charity that raised money though a charitable event called the “March of Dimes.” Dime by dime, millions of dollars were donated to fight polio.
The “Roosevelt” dime was introduced in 1946, the year after FDR’s death, and continues to circulate today. (The coin has outlasted my grandparents, sad to say.) But the Roosevelt dime—small and humble as it is—has accomplished its purpose beautifully. The last known case of polio in the U.S. occurred in 1979. The Americas, North and South, were declared polio-free in 1994.
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