You have to go back to the summer of 1931. That whole year and a half following was a just scary. . Hoover had totallylost the confidence of the country, and Roosevelt just got people pulling together. Think about the first year after 9/11. Unlike the guy we have now, FDR was a leader.
I was born in 1966.
My great-uncles were lifelong Roosevelt fans, but they gave up being Democrats in the Clinton years - it was just too vulgar.