In August 1921, Franklin D. Roosevelt was stricken with polio. He never walked again.
Now a controversy is growing over whether the nation's long-delayed memorial to the 32nd president, finally under construction, should show him in a wheelchair.Some argue that Roosevelt should be depicted that way out of historical accuracy - and as a useful affirmation that a handicap need not be a bar to national leadership. But others note he did all he could to conceal his handicap and say that sentiment should be respected.
The impact of polio was a central fact of Roosevelt's life, but he managed to conceal his difficulty most of the time during the 12 years of his presidency.
When he died on April 12, 1945, millions of Americans were only barely aware that he was a paraplegic.
The country, along with FDR, pretended otherwise: Cartoons showed him running down the field, carrying the ball; photographs of him in a wheelchair or being carried were never published.
Roosevelt's oldest grandchild, Curtis Roosevelt, says the president would have been "very disturbed" to be shown as a handi-capped person.
"He was a very private person and went to great lengths to avoid any discussion or comment on any illness that might be plaguing him," he wrote to the FDR Memorial Commission, the government agency created to build the memorial.
Eight other grandchildren - there were 29 of them, from five children and their 21 marriages - have written a letter supporting a depiction "of all facets of the man as he was, not as some think he ought to have been." One who signed subsequently withdrew her name.
The monument, 7 acres of gardens and flowing water, is going up across the Tidal Basin from the Jefferson Monument. It is to open next spring.
After 40 years of design controversies, the commission is reluctant to order changes in the three planned statues of Roosevelt. None of them suggests a wheelchair or the steel braces he wore.
But a photo and a timeline of FDR's life will make his disability evident. Washington lawyer Lester Hyman, a commission member, said an effort is being made to display one of Roosevelt's wheel-chairs.
But efforts are under way to change the commission's mind. The National Organization on Disability, which says it represents the interests of disabled Americans, even has offered to raise funds to pay for a new statue showing FDR in a wheelchair.
Rep. Steny Hoyer, D-Md., is circulating a letter to President Clinton among House colleagues. "His disability enhanced his strength of character, personal discipline and courage," it says.
Others put it more poignantly.
"They're trying to take our hero from us," says Hugh Gallagher, himself a polio victim and the author of "FDR's Splendid Deception" - the story of "the only person in the recorded history of mankind who was chosen as a leader by his people even though he could not walk or stand without help."
Former President Bush has written it "would be a shame" if one statue did not render Roosevelt in a wheelchair. Clinton said in a speech in May he hoped the commission would "find a way to make sure that the American people know that this great, great president was great with his disability." Bob Dole, whose right arm was disabled by World War II wound, has not yet expressed a view.