| Birth: | Aug. 6, 1861 | | Death: | Sep. 30, 1948 | 
Presidential First Lady. She was the second wife of Theodore Roosevelt and knew him from infancy while being the playmate of his younger sister Corinne. Edith Kermit Carow was born in Connecticut receiving the typical education of the day for daughters of the wealthy at Miss Comstock's school acquiring the proper finishing touches which would serve her well in the years ahead. Although she dated Theodore casually while growing up, he married another while attending Harvard. She died from complications of childbirth. Her relationship with the future President was rekindled and they were quietly married in London five years later. The assassination of President McKinley catapulted them into the Whitehouse along with five children, one a stepdaughter from her husbands first marriage. She assumed her new duties with sound judgement and efficient household management while guarding the privacy of her family by attempting to keep reporters outside her domain. The White House became the social center of America. Edith instituted the tradition of East Room Musicales where on Friday nights as many as 500 guest would attend, On one occasion, Pablo Casals played. The Roosevelt's were always announced by a three trumpet fanfare. She supervised the expansion and renovation of the White House restoring the classic simplicity of the early 19th century. She began many traditions. The first to categorize the contents of the mansion by inventory and the placing of portraits of first ladies in a special corridor continuing today. She was the first to hire a social secretary to book engagements and oversee invitations. Following Theodore Roosevelt's death, Edith traveled the world as a distinguished and honored guest. She refrained from political activity but made appearances for Herbert Hoover in his quest for the presidency and later criticized Franklin D. Roosevelt's New Deal. She outlived three of her sons as well as her husband, the hardest being the death of Quentin during World War I. Organizing her death as she did her life, Edith planned her own funeral. She put aside a plot in Johnson's cemetery located a short distance from Sagamore Hill, the Oyster Bay, New York's private Roosevelt residence, forty years prior to her death. It was there that Theodore was buried and she interred beside him upon her death at age 87. At her request this inscription was placed on her marker: "Everything she did was for the happiness of others." (bio by: Donald Greyfield (inactive))
Family links:
Spouse:
Theodore Roosevelt (1858 - 1919)*
Children:
Theodore Roosevelt (1887 - 1944)*
Kermit Roosevelt (1889 - 1943)*
Archibald Bulloch Roosevelt (1894 - 1979)*
Quentin Roosevelt (1897 - 1918)*
*Calculated relationship
Search Amazon for Edith Roosevelt | | | Burial:
Youngs Memorial Cemetery
Oyster Bay
Nassau County
New York, USA |
Maintained by: Find A Grave
Record added: Jul 26, 1999
Find A Grave Memorial# 5995 |
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