Theodore Roosevelt was many thing : a writer , a rancher , a president . But above all , he was a family man . TR was exceptionally close to , and dear have it off , his family . As hewrotein his autobiography , “ A house of small fry , if thing go reasonably well , certainly makes all other forms of success and accomplishment lose their importance by compare . It may be truthful that he travel farthest who travels alone ; but the goal thus arrive at is not deserving reaching . ”
TR was n’t one to continually gush about his family members , but he made it clear that they truly were the most important part of his life . I ’m your master of ceremonies , Erin McCarthy , and in this fillip episode ofHistory Vs.—a podcast from Mental Floss and iHeartRadio about how your favorite historic figures faced off against their greatest enemy — we’ll be cover all the other President Theodore Roosevelt that we did n’t get to talk about in detail in time of year 1 .
Let ’s start with TR ’s older sis , Anna Roosevelt Cowles — or , as she ’s more usually known , Bamie .
Bamie was bear on January 18 , 1855 , and had a curve of the vertebral column that caused a belittled hump ; she required years of therapy so as to walk .
According to historian Betty Boyd Caroli , Bamie was so often on the go that her family gave her yet another byname , “ Bye , ” as in “ Bye , Bamie ! ”
With her sempiternal energy , not bad idea , and outstanding oeuvre ethic , Bamie was a steadying force for her family to rally around and rely on throughout her entire liveliness . As presently as she was old enough , she managed the Roosevelt house and was sort of a third parent to her younger siblings , Theodore , Elliot , and Corinne . fit in to the Theodore Roosevelt Center , Bamie ’s “ maturity made her seem like one of the grown - ups when they were all young . ”That belief never really don off for TR , and Bamie continued to advise and assist him when he was a grown - up himself . She decorated his room in the embarkment house at Harvard and even had a deal in plan his first honeymoon . When TR and his first married woman , Alice , pass a few day after their marriage at the Roosevelts ’ lease Long Island estate , Kathleen Daltonwritesthat “ Bamie had order all their repast in the lead of time and arranged everything with the three servants who give care for them . ”
When TR began his life history in politics , Bamie lent an pinna , doled out advice , and facilitate him make political connections . And when his brother Elliott ’s housemaid , Katy Mann , sound out that Elliott had commence her pregnant — a scandal that , if exposed , TR believed would peril his political chances — it was Bamie who helped TR deflect a lawsuit .
Bamie married late in life , to a Navy police officer key William Sheffield Cowles , and moved to Washington around the same time her chum was elected Vice President . There , her dwelling house became what TR would call “ the other White House . ” He travel to often and consulted with Bamie on political appointments and maneuvers .
Bamie ’s health correct as she aged , and she drop her net days with her husband in Connecticut , plagued by arthritis , backaches , deafness , and deteriorating eyesight . She passed off in 1931 at the historic period of 76 , but there was one vital bit of TR ’s legacy that she saw to before she died .
In 1899 , Bamie sold the house where she , TR , and their other sibling had been put up , and various stores and restaurant would go on to occupy the site . After he died in 1919 , younger sis Corinne led the Women ’s Roosevelt Memorial Association in raising stock to bribe back the site and transubstantiate it into a memorial . Together , Bamie and Corinne had it reconstructed precisely as they remembered it , unadulterated with fellowship portraiture , heirloom , and original furniture or replica .
“ The Roosevelt House ” opened on TR ’s natal day in 1923 , and the National Park Service took it over 40 class later , renaming it the Theodore Roosevelt Birthplace National Historic Site . Today , the house that Bamie so skilfully ran in her youth stands as a memorial not only to TR ’s bequest , but Bamie ’s , too .
TR ’s vernal sis , Corinne , was a high - spirited , mercurial woman who devoted herself to him unwaveringly . While TR look up to Bamie as an advisor and a role model , Corinne was more of a buddy .
According to Dalton , TRsought outCorinne ’s company “ when he felt soulful , or needed unambivalent extolment or just playfulness . ”
Corinne ’s education consisted of private tutoring and a stint at Miss Comstock ’s School in Manhattan , much of which she take care with her neighbor , Edith Kermit Carow . Edith , of course , would later become TR ’s 2d married woman .
Corinne herself married a boisterous , wealthy Scottish - born real estate agent named Douglas Robinson , a relative of former President James Monroe . Corinnesobbedthrough her engagement , but she did n’t dare break it off — and the energetic , socially active couple turned out to be amazingly well - equate . They had four children : Two served in politics , and oneauthoreda book that sing about his puerility at Sagamore Hill . The family was not without tragedy : Their new boy , Stewart , diedat 19 years old when he accidentally hang from a windowpane at Harvard .
Throughout her grownup life , Corinne split her time between poesy , politics , and parties .
Her first poem , “ The Call of Brotherhood , ” waspublishedinScribner ’s Magazinein 1911 , and she followed it up with several poetry al-Qur’an . Her friend and fellow writer Edith Wharton promote and edited some of her work .
Corinne also host unstinted party at the family ’s land in West Orange , New Jersey . It was at one of these party that Franklin Roosevelt require a girl to dance : His distant cousin , Eleanor , who was Corinne ’s niece , and would after become Franklin ’s married woman .
In September 1918 , Corinne ’s husbandpassedaway unexpectedly of heart disease at geezerhood 63 , and she lost Theodore just a few months later on , in January 1919 . The sudden death of her beloved brother shook Corinne to her core .
“ living would always have glamour , spell , inspiration and joy as long as he endure , ” shesaid , “ And now he is gone . ”
From that point until her owndeathin 1933 from pneumonia , Corinne ’s life was fundamentally a tribute to TR . She worked with the Roosevelt Memorial Association , penned many heartfelt poems about him , and published a memoir titledMy Brother Theodore Rooseveltin 1921 .
Corrine contrive herself into political sympathies , backing presidential candidates whom she felt would bear on TR ’s vision for the country . In 1920 , sheendorsedGeneral Leonard Wood at the Republican National Convention . She also serve on President Calvin Coolidge ’s advisory committee during his 1924 campaign .
TR ’s boy , Ted Jr. ,summarizedhis auntie ’s dedication to TR in his journal : “ She has talked so much … about him that I really think that she is more or less convinced that she is he now . ”
While Corinne had process her sorrow over TR ’s death very publically , his second wife , Edith , did her good to forget hers for the rice beer of her remain kinfolk .
“ I am idle , but no one but you dearest Corinne must know that , ” shewrotein March 1919 , just a few calendar month after TR ’s death . “ I am fight hard to pull myself together and do for the family not only my part but also Theodore ’s . ”
Edith keep busy by volunteering for the Women ’s National Republican Club and the Needlework Guild , and took trips to Europe , Asia , Africa , and South America . She was n’t just a political militant , but she did advance women to vote after the 19th Amendment pass off , and she verbalise out in bread and butter of Herbert Hoover when he ran against Franklin Roosevelt . ( harmonise to the Theodore Roosevelt Center , this was partially to elucidate that Roosevelt was n’t her son , as some Americans had assumed . )
As Sylvia Jukes Morris writes in her biography of Edith , the former First Lady was “ by nature reclusive and sedentary , ” and “ she had to fight all the harder to be socially and culturally active — but fight she did , with courage that Theodore himself would have look up to . ”
She oftentimes assist parties in Oyster Bay , and even braved Manhattan for concerts and operas . Between all her travelling , volunteering , and keeping up with Quaker and family , Edith guided how TR was remembered in the centre of the public . Not only did she destroy many of their love missive , she also had a lot of say in deciding which documents got pass on on to historian . It ’s for this reason that some assimilator — admit Michael Cullinane , who we spoke to in previous sequence of this podcast — consider Edith the truegatekeeperof TR ’s legacy .
She was the gatekeeper of Sagamore Hill , too . After TR die , his firstborn son , Ted , had intended to take over the estate of the realm and raise his mob there . Edith , however , did n’t plan on move . ShewantedSagamore Hill to be a center for the whole crime syndicate , and eventuallyallotteda few estate of land to Ted so he could establish his own home . He did , and these daytime , it ’s acknowledge as the Old Orchard Museum .
Edith live at Sagamore Hill for the residue of her life , and died there on September 30 , 1948 , at the age of 87 . She ’s bury at Youngs Memorial Cemetery with her husband .
Now rent ’s move on to the Roosevelt kids .
Edith and Theodore ’s oldest son , Theodore III , or Ted Jr. , technically followed his father into politics . But his path there was roundabout , and his defining bequest was mostly a military one .
After graduating from Harvard in 1909 , Ted sour for a carpetcompanyand then an investment bankingfirm . After World War I broke out in Europe in 1914 , he contrive for the inevitability of U.S. involvement by helping to get up a training program in Plattsburg(h ) , New York , which marked the beginning of his lifelong heat for military table service .
In April 1917 , the U.S. entered the war , and Ted , right away commissioned major , was among the first soldierssentto France . His wife , Eleanor Butler Alexander , lefttheir children with Edith and jell off for France as well , where she incline a YMCA , organized volunteer , and taught French to American soldiers .
The insistence glorify Ted as an expert , grand leader — and so did his father .
“ Our pride even surpasses our anxiety , ” TR publish . “ I walk with my school principal higher because of you . ”
A bullet to thekneeduring a 1918 battle would keep Ted away from the front lines for the rest of the state of war , and he soon set his sights on public service . Throughout the 1920s and ’ 30s , Ted hold a turn of positions , include New York Assemblyman , Assistant Secretary of the Navy , Governor of Puerto Rico , and Governor General of the Philippines . He also spearheaded the administration of the American Legion , run for Governor of New York ( but did n’t acquire ) , and eventually settled into a frailty presidential term at the publishing house Doubleday , Doran .
When the U.S. got involve in World War II , a middle - aged Ted was undeterred by his heart problems or the arthritis that forced him to walk with a cane . He enlisted , was further to brigadier general general , and struggle in Algeria and Italy . He was accompany by his Word Quentin , diagnose for Ted ’s younger brother who had died during World War I and had been bury in France .
ThencameD - Day . Tedledthe troops onto Utah Beach , earning a Medal of Honor for his valiance . He survive , but a calendar month after the battle , while still in France , Ted died of a heart attack . He wasburiedin the Normandy American Cemetery in France . In 1955 , at therequestof the Roosevelt family , his brother Quentin ’s remains wererelocatedto rest there , too .
We ’ll be right back .
In 1929 , Ted Jr. publishedAll in the Family , a memoir with many colourful anecdotes from the Roosevelts ’ puerility . One of them really captures the spirit of his young blood brother Kermit .
“ When Father scan to us we all interrupted him continually with questions , but Kermit was by far the worst offender , ” Tedwrote . “ One ‘ why ’ bred another so chop-chop in his mind that shortly reading almost stopped . ”
Kermit ’s insatiable curiosity only tone as he got older , and in a style , his whole lifespan was a pursuit to read as much as he mayhap could .
He play along his father on both the fabled African safari of 1909 and the lifespan - threatening journey along Amazon ’s River of Doubt in 1913 and ‘ 14 . Without his father , he orb - trot around station like Asia , the Indies , and the Galapagos Islands , practice his penchant for plunk up languages along the way . He could speak or say almost 10 , including Portuguese , Swahili , Arabic , and Greek .
Kermit built an impressive resume : Heauthoredseveral Scripture and numberless articles about his escapade , and he also write account book reviews and essay about his father . He also worked at a bank in Buenos Aires and founded his own steamship company . He commanded British force during World War I , and later helped bring about the modernistic U.S. Merchant Marine . He fathered four children with his wife , Belle Wyatt Willard . He was president of the National Association of Audubon Societies , what would later become the Audubon Society , and he even rubbed shoulder joint with Gertrude Stein and William Butler Yeats .
But , as Edmund Morriswrotein his bookColonel Roosevelt,“[Kermit ’s ] nomadic nature and marvelous talent for speech fought against the confinements of married couple and work . Depression steadily claimed him . He became a womanizer and insatiable juicer and , as his organic structure inspissate , develop a startling resemblance to his father . ”
Kermit fight down with British power again at the outset of World War II , but he was soon send home because of his fallible heart . He started drinking again . Thinking military service would do him good , his married woman and younger sidekick , Archie , asked then - President Franklin Roosevelt to commission him in the American regular army .
He was sent to Alaska , where he helped to organize a reserves , but the assignment was n’t the steadying force his folk had hop for . In June 1943 , Kermit ingest his own life . His mother , 81 at the fourth dimension , wastoldthat he had pop off of a heart onslaught . Kermit isburiedat the Fort Richardson National Cemetery in Anchorage , Alaska .
In TR ’s own words , his fourth minor , Ethel , was “ a merry naughty whacky baby too attractive for anything , and thoroughly able to hold her own in the humans . ”
Ethel was n’t too attractive to rough - menage with her siblings , though . As Edward J. Renehan Jr.writesin his bookThe Lion ’s Pride : Theodore Roosevelt and His Family in Peace and War , Ethel was a “ fantastic romp ” who spent her early twelvemonth “ swinge from tree with her brothers , run relay races , row on Oyster Bay , and ride a succession of best-loved horses . ”
But as she got older , Ethel became the reserved , creditworthy girl that her impulsive former sister , Alice , never was . While TR address Alice his “ financial obligation child , ” he praised Ethel as the “ asset child . ” She stand beside her mother on White House receiving ancestry . She instruct Sunday School to less golden nestling .
In 1914 , World War I gave Ethel the opportunity to give herself to volunteer work full - fourth dimension . She had just married sawbones Richard Derby in 1913 , and the two both treated wounded soldiers at the American Ambulance Hospital in France , yr before the United States formally enter the disturbance .
Much like her grandfather , Thee , Ethel was commit to humanitarianism . After the warfare , she indorse a bit of grounds , many of which were free-base in or around Oyster Bay , where she live with her husband and children .
Shevolunteeredfor the Red Cross , and push for low-cost housing for African Americans in the country . She was an active member of both her church and the local nursing service , and she also became a trustee of New York ’s American Museum of Natural History — an institution her grandfather had helped discover .
Though Ethel pursued her own charitable passions , she still made meter to further her father ’s preservation efforts and solidify the Roosevelt legacy in Oyster Bay . And we can give thanks Ethel for the preservation of Sagamore Hill , too . She helped base the house as a National Historic Site after her mother decease there in 1948 .
Ethel lived in Oyster Bay until herdeathin 1977 at age 86 . She ’s buried in Youngs Memorial Cemetery .
While all the Roosevelt children treated the White House as their playground in one way or another , a few of Archibald ’s antic were particularly memorable . It was Little Archie whosmuggleda Christmas tree into the White House in 1902 , and his Shetland pony , Algonquin , reportedlyrodethe White House lift to inspect him while he was go back from the rubeola the following year .
Archie , TR ’s second youthful boy , had inherit his Father-God ’s sense of adventure and uncanny lack of fright . His youthful pal , Quentin , was his sidekick in the White House and beyond .
As MorriswroteinColonel Roosevelt , the two brothers were “ as different as Huck Finn and Tom Sawyer . ” Quentin was “ soft and uncompetitive , ” whereas TR ’s aidecalledArchie “ the pugnacious member ” of the family . “ He takes up the cudgel at every fortune , ” the aide wrote .
Archie ’s preferent companion may have been Quentin , but his personality mirror his older sidekick Ted Jr. ’s . In many way , so did his calling . Like Ted , Archie solve for a carpeting caller after graduating Harvard , and was wounded in France during World War I.
After the warfare , Archiespenta few years in the oil industry before establish his own investment funds firm . His achiever proceed his married woman , Grace , and their four children from feel the bad of the Great Depression .
But Archie abandoned the puff of his office to link up the American effort in World War II . He fought in New Guinea , and suffered wounds to the same weapon system and leg that had been shatter in World War I. Though Archie survived the state of war , he never whole recovered . He had always been politically bourgeois , but his post - war years were characterize by paranoia and conspiracy theories about communism .
He eventually retired to Florida , where hediedin 1979 after a stroke . Archie was 85 age sure-enough . During his last years , at least , it seems like the ravages of war fell away , and he returned or else to well-chosen memories of his boyhood in New York .
“ I ’m go to Sagamore Hill , ” he keptrepeating .
And , finally , we have Alice — or , as she was known in D.C. , The Other Washington Monument .
In the remainder , Alice Roosevelt Longworth , whom we covered at length in a old instalment , outlive all of her half - siblings . She was TR ’s oldest and arguably wild child , the only one from his first marriage . Shediedin 1980 at age 96 , and she ’s swallow in Washington , D.C. , with her daughter , Paulina .
We ’ll be back in a distich of weeks with another bonus installment ofHistory Vs .
Credits
History Vs.is hosted by me , Erin McCarthy . This episode was written by Ellen Gutoskey , with fact - checking by Austin Thompson .
The Executive Producers are Erin McCarthy , Julie Douglas , and Tyler Klang .
The Supervising Producer is Dylan Fagan .
The show is edited by Dylan Fagan and Lowell Brillante .
To memorize more about this episode , and Theodore Roosevelt , check out our web site at mentalfloss.com/historyvs .
History Vs . Is a product of iHeartRadio and Mental Floss .
