The coincidence was appropriate, because Cusack is a student of the former first lady and her husband, Franklin Delano Roosevelt.

As she prepares to retire as the library's community liaison, Cusack will share her enthusiasm and knowledge about the two iconic figures as the featured speaker at the Grandview Heights/Marble Cliff Historical Society's annual meeting. The event will be held at 6:30 p.m. Monday at the library. It will begin with a short business meeting before Cusack's presentation.

Cusack recently returned from a trip to Springwood, the Roosevelt home in Hyde Park, N.Y., where she attended the celebration of Eleanor Roosevelt's 125th birthday.

"I decided to go as a kind of gift to myself for my retirement," Cusack said. "It was a wonderful event. Every time I visit Springwood or other Roosevelt sites, it's special."

One of her retirement plans is to continue her study of the Roosevelts.

Cusack said her retirement will allow her to spend more time in a room at her house she calls her "snuggery," a name FDR's mother, Sara, used for her sitting and writing room at Springwood.

Cusack's snuggery features bookcases filled with more than 200 books about the Roosevelts and their era and a variety of Roosevelt memorabilia.

"I'm looking forward to having a chance to read more of these books," she said. "I've probably read only about a quarter of them."

Perhaps her proudest possessions are a 1940 Roosevelt/Wallace inauguration button and a original copy of the program for FDR's first inauguration purchased from the Library of Congress.

"They're really a piece of history," Cusack said.

Her interest in presidents began when she was a child. At a young age she could already name all the presidents in order.

"But there was something about Franklin Roosevelt. I just found him the most interesting," Cusack said. "I think in part it's because he was president for so long and through such challenging times, both the Depression and World War II. He was also the president from my parents' era."

The Roosevelts did not have a traditional marriage, but they were political partners who worked well together, she said.

"Eleanor wasn't content to be the society matron she was brought up to become," Cusack said. "She was not a traditional first lady."

Franklin Roosevelt can serve as a model for leading during difficult economic times, she said.

"He was bold enough and confident enough to try different solutions for the nation's problems," Cusack said. "Not everything he tried work, and sometimes he had some bad ideas. But he would try and if something didn't work, he'd try something else. The point was to try something."

Although she is retiring at the end of the month, Cusack has agreed to continue to work part-time to help raise funds for the library's endowment fund.

Cusack grew up in Grandview.

"I never imagined I would end up working at the Grandview Library," she said. "But I've been blessed to get to work there for 25 years, especially with (library director) Mary Ludlum all along."

The Grandview Library is a special place with a staff that works so well as a team, Cusack said.

"I've found that if you mention the Grandview Library to someone, they'll usually say something like, 'oh I love that place.'"