[1] As a teenager, McGovern became interested in political and social issues, and joined debate teams, first at Woonsocket High School and later during her one year at Dakota Wesleyan University.

The couple met again and fell in love, while both were at Dakota Wesleyan, and later became engaged, but initially decided not to marry until World War II ended.

[1] On a limited budget, she found work for a period as a legal secretary for Herbert Hitchcock and Fred Nichol in Mitchell, South Dakota.

Eleanor followed George to a number of training stops, before he was sent into combat overseas as a B-24 bomber pilot stationed in Italy and making runs over Nazi Germany.

[5] Eleanor took active roles in her husband's campaigns, which included his elections to the US House of Representatives, the US Senate and significantly when he won the Democratic presidential nomination in 1972.

After her husband's resounding loss in the 1972 United States presidential election, and subsequent defeat for a fourth Senate term in 1980, she remained active, particularly in combating world hunger.

[6] She remained highly involved in civic work acting as a board member for Dakota Wesleyan University, The Psychiatric Institute Foundation, The Child Study Association, a leading authority on child development, The Erickson Institute of Chicago, an advocate of early childhood education, and Odyssey House of New York, a broad-based New York drug and alcohol treatment and rehabilitation center.

Though she was unable to attend due to failing health, the George and Eleanor McGovern Library and Center for Leadership and Public Service was dedicated on the campus of Dakota Wesleyan University on October 7, 2006.

[1] She began to suffer from bouts of depression, but continued to assume the major share of household and child-rearing duties during her husband's political career.