WEBVTT - Epilogue: The Other Roosevelts 0:00:00.440 --> 0:00:05.800 History Versus is a production of I Heart Radio and 0:00:06.160 --> 0:00:24.479 Mental Flaws. Theodore Roosevelt was many things, a writer, a rancher, 0:00:24.880 --> 0:00:28.080 a president, but above all, he was a family man. 0:00:28.960 --> 0:00:32.400 Tira was exceptionally close to and dearly loved his family. 0:00:33.240 --> 0:00:36.240 As he wrote in his autobiography, a household of children, 0:00:36.400 --> 0:00:39.520 if things go reasonably well, certainly makes all other forms 0:00:39.520 --> 0:00:43.159 of success and achievement lose their importance by comparison. It 0:00:43.240 --> 0:00:45.680 may be true that he travels farthest who travels alone, 0:00:45.880 --> 0:00:48.880 but the goal thus reached is not worth reaching. Tira 0:00:48.960 --> 0:00:51.599 wasn't one to continually gush about his family members, but 0:00:51.680 --> 0:00:53.640 he made it clear that they truly were the most 0:00:53.680 --> 0:01:01.520 important part of his life. I'm your host Aaron McCarthy, 0:01:01.560 --> 0:01:04.480 and in this bonus episode of History Versus, a podcast 0:01:04.520 --> 0:01:06.520 from Mental Floss and I Heart Radio about how your 0:01:06.560 --> 0:01:09.760 favorite historical figures faced off against their greatest foes, we'll 0:01:09.800 --> 0:01:12.040 be covering all the other Roosevelt's that we didn't get 0:01:12.080 --> 0:01:14.760 to talk about in detail in season one. Let's start 0:01:14.760 --> 0:01:18.000 with TR's older sister, Anna Roosevelt Cowles, or as she's 0:01:18.000 --> 0:01:29.399 more commonly known, Baby Baby, was born on January and 0:01:29.440 --> 0:01:31.839 had a curvature of the spine that caused a small hump. 0:01:32.520 --> 0:01:36.240 She required years of therapy in order to walk. According 0:01:36.240 --> 0:01:38.959 to historian Betty Boyd Caroli, Baby was so often on 0:01:39.000 --> 0:01:41.920 the go that her family gave her yet another nickname, Bye, 0:01:42.400 --> 0:01:46.280 as in Bye Baby. With her endless energy, keen mind, 0:01:46.319 --> 0:01:49.360 and outstanding work ethic, Baby was a studying force for 0:01:49.400 --> 0:01:51.760 her family to rally around and rely on throughout her 0:01:51.880 --> 0:01:54.600 entire life. As soon as she was old enough, she 0:01:54.640 --> 0:01:57.360 managed the Roosevelt household and was sort of a third 0:01:57.400 --> 0:02:01.440 parent to her younger siblings, Theodore, Elliott, and Karn. According 0:02:01.480 --> 0:02:04.560 to the Theatore Roosevelt Center, Baby's maturity made her seem 0:02:04.600 --> 0:02:06.520 like one of the grown ups when they were all young. 0:02:07.400 --> 0:02:10.280 That impression never really wore off for Tire, and Baby 0:02:10.320 --> 0:02:12.440 continued to advise and assist him when he was a 0:02:12.440 --> 0:02:15.120 grown up himself. She decorated his room in the boarding 0:02:15.120 --> 0:02:17.360 house at Harvard and even had a hand in planning 0:02:17.400 --> 0:02:20.480 his first honeymoon when Tier and his first wife, Alice, 0:02:20.480 --> 0:02:22.560 spent a few days after their marriage at the Roosevelt's 0:02:22.560 --> 0:02:25.600 rented Long Island estate. Kathleen Dalton writes that Baby had 0:02:25.720 --> 0:02:28.639 ordered all their meals ahead of time and arranged everything 0:02:28.680 --> 0:02:31.080 with the three servants who cared for them. When Tierra 0:02:31.160 --> 0:02:34.000 began his career in politics, Baby lent an ear, dolled 0:02:34.000 --> 0:02:37.119 out advice, and helped him make political connections. And when 0:02:37.120 --> 0:02:39.840 his brother, Eliot's made Katie Mann said that Elliott had 0:02:39.840 --> 0:02:43.200 gotten her pregnant, a scandal that, if exposed, Tierra believed 0:02:43.200 --> 0:02:46.240 would threaten his political chances. It was Baby who helped 0:02:46.240 --> 0:02:49.520 Tier avoid a lawsuit. Baby married late in life to 0:02:49.560 --> 0:02:52.440 a Navy officer named William Sheffield Cowles and moved to 0:02:52.480 --> 0:02:56.360 Washington around the same time her brother was elected Vice president. There, 0:02:56.400 --> 0:02:59.000 her home became what Tier would call the Other White House. 0:02:59.360 --> 0:03:02.440 He visited often and consulted with Baby on political appointments 0:03:02.440 --> 0:03:06.120 and maneuvers. Baby's health declined as she aged, and she 0:03:06.200 --> 0:03:09.160 spent her final years with her husband in Connecticut, plagued 0:03:09.160 --> 0:03:13.360 by arthritis, back aches, deafness, and deteriorating eyesight. She passed 0:03:13.400 --> 0:03:15.720 away in nineteen thirty one at the age of seventy six, 0:03:16.080 --> 0:03:18.440 but there was one vital bit of TR's legacy that 0:03:18.480 --> 0:03:25.600 she saw to before she died. In eighteen ninety nine, 0:03:25.639 --> 0:03:27.880 Baby sold the house where she tr and their other 0:03:27.919 --> 0:03:31.240 siblings have been born, and various stores and restaurants would 0:03:31.240 --> 0:03:33.640 go on to occupy the site after he died. In 0:03:33.720 --> 0:03:37.240 nineteen nineteen, younger sister Karin led the Women's Roosevelt Memorial 0:03:37.280 --> 0:03:39.920 Association in raising funds to buy back the site and 0:03:39.960 --> 0:03:43.600 transform it into a memorial. Together, Bamy and Karin had 0:03:43.600 --> 0:03:48.360 it reconstructed exactly as they remembered it, complete with family portraits, heirlooms, 0:03:48.400 --> 0:03:52.360 and original furniture or replicas. The Roosevelt House opened on 0:03:52.400 --> 0:03:55.680 Tierra's birthday in ninety three, and the National Park Service 0:03:55.760 --> 0:03:58.320 took it over forty years later, renaming it the Theodore 0:03:58.360 --> 0:04:02.360 Roosevelt Birthplace National His or Excite Today, the house that 0:04:02.400 --> 0:04:05.120 Baby so skillfully ran in her youth stands as a 0:04:05.160 --> 0:04:09.880 monument not only to TR's legacy, but Baby's two Tier's 0:04:09.880 --> 0:04:12.800 younger sister, Karin, was a high spirited, mercurial woman who 0:04:12.880 --> 0:04:16.040 devoted herself to him unwaveringly. While Tr looked up to 0:04:16.040 --> 0:04:18.680 Baby as an advisor and a role model, Karn was 0:04:18.720 --> 0:04:21.600 more of a buddy. According to Dalton, tr sought out 0:04:21.640 --> 0:04:25.160 Karin's company when he felt soulful or needed unambivalent praise 0:04:25.279 --> 0:04:29.479 or just playfulness. Karin's education consisted of private tutoring and 0:04:29.520 --> 0:04:32.359 a stint at Miss Comstock School in Manhattan, much of 0:04:32.360 --> 0:04:35.839 which she attended with her neighbor, Edith Kurmit Carrow. Edith, 0:04:35.880 --> 0:04:39.480 of course, would later become tor second wife. Karin herself 0:04:39.520 --> 0:04:42.479 married a boisterous, wealthy Scottish born real estate broker named 0:04:42.480 --> 0:04:47.320 Douglas Robinson, a relative of former President James Monroe. Karin 0:04:47.480 --> 0:04:50.279 sobbed through her engagement, but she didn't dare break it off, 0:04:50.800 --> 0:04:53.279 and the energetic, socially active couple turned out to be 0:04:53.320 --> 0:04:57.960 surprisingly well matched. They had four children, Two served in politics, 0:04:58.000 --> 0:04:59.960 and one authored a book that talked about his child 0:05:00.040 --> 0:05:03.720 hood at Sagamore Hill. The family was not without tragedy. 0:05:04.080 --> 0:05:06.800 Their youngest son, Stewart, died at nineteen years old when 0:05:06.800 --> 0:05:09.960 he accidentally fell from a window at Harvard. Throughout her 0:05:09.960 --> 0:05:13.719 adult life, Karin split her time between poetry, politics, and parties. 0:05:16.880 --> 0:05:20.080 Her first poem, The Call of Brotherhood, was published in 0:05:20.120 --> 0:05:23.240 Scribner's magazine in nineteen eleven, and she followed it up 0:05:23.279 --> 0:05:26.680 with several poetry books. Her friends and fellow writer Edith 0:05:26.720 --> 0:05:30.560 Wharton encouraged and edited some of her work Karin also 0:05:30.600 --> 0:05:33.480 hosted lavish parties at the family's estate in West Orange, 0:05:33.520 --> 0:05:35.960 New Jersey. It was at one of these parties that 0:05:35.960 --> 0:05:39.600 Franklin Roosevelt asked a girl to dance his distant cousin, Eleanor, 0:05:39.640 --> 0:05:44.400 who was Karin's niece and would later become Franklin's wife. 0:05:47.440 --> 0:05:50.760 In September nineteen eighteen, Karin's husband passed away unexpectedly of 0:05:50.800 --> 0:05:53.720 heart disease at age sixty three, and she lost Theodore 0:05:53.800 --> 0:05:57.760 just a few months later in January. The sudden death 0:05:57.800 --> 0:06:01.280 of her beloved brother shook Karin to her or life 0:06:01.279 --> 0:06:04.640 would always have glamor, enchantment, inspiration, and delight as long 0:06:04.680 --> 0:06:07.800 as he lived, she said, and now he has gone. 0:06:09.160 --> 0:06:11.440 From that point until her own death in nineteen thirty 0:06:11.480 --> 0:06:14.359 three from pneumonia, Karin's life was essentially a tribute to 0:06:14.400 --> 0:06:18.320 tr She worked with the Roosevelt Memorial Association, penned many 0:06:18.400 --> 0:06:21.560 heartfelt poems about him, and published a memoir titled My 0:06:21.600 --> 0:06:32.840 Brother Theodore Roosevelt. In Karnn threw herself into politics, backing 0:06:32.880 --> 0:06:35.880 presidential candidates whom she felt what uphold Tire's vision for 0:06:35.920 --> 0:06:39.560 the country. In nineteen twenty, she endorsed General Leonard Wood 0:06:39.560 --> 0:06:43.320 at the Republican National Convention. She also served on President 0:06:43.320 --> 0:06:47.880 Calvin Coolidge's advisory committee during his n campaign. Tr Son 0:06:47.960 --> 0:06:51.200 Ted Junior summarized his aunt's dedication to tr in his diary. 0:06:52.040 --> 0:06:54.679 She has talked so much about him that I really 0:06:54.720 --> 0:06:57.919 believe she is more or less convinced that she is 0:06:57.960 --> 0:07:02.359 he now. While Karin had processed her grief over Tier's 0:07:02.400 --> 0:07:05.800 death very publicly, his second wife, Edith, did her best 0:07:05.839 --> 0:07:08.200 to bury hers for the sake of her remaining family. 0:07:09.400 --> 0:07:11.600 I am dead, but no one but you, dearest Karin, 0:07:11.760 --> 0:07:14.480 must know that. She wrote in March nine, nineteen, just 0:07:14.520 --> 0:07:17.920 a few months after Tier's death, I'm fighting hard to 0:07:17.920 --> 0:07:20.440 pull myself together and do for the family, not only 0:07:20.520 --> 0:07:24.920 my part, but also Theodores. Edith kept busy by volunteering 0:07:25.000 --> 0:07:28.040 for the Women's National Republican Club and the Needlework Guild, 0:07:28.320 --> 0:07:31.240 and took trips to Europe, Asia, Africa, and South America. 0:07:31.720 --> 0:07:34.880 She wasn't exactly a political activist, but she did encourage 0:07:34.920 --> 0:07:37.440 women to vote after the nineteenth Amendment was passed, and 0:07:37.520 --> 0:07:39.600 she spoke out in support of Herbert Hoover when he 0:07:39.680 --> 0:07:42.960 ran against Franklin Roosevelt. According to the Theatre Roosevelt Center, 0:07:43.360 --> 0:07:45.800 this was partly to clarify that Roosevelt wasn't her son, 0:07:45.960 --> 0:07:49.160 as some Americans had assumed. As Sylvia Jukes Morris writes 0:07:49.160 --> 0:07:51.760 in her biography of Edith, the former First Lady was 0:07:51.960 --> 0:07:55.680 by nature reclusive and sedentary, and she had to fight 0:07:55.680 --> 0:07:58.560 all the harder to be socially and culturally active. But 0:07:58.680 --> 0:08:01.920 fight she did with courage that Theodore himself would have admired. 0:08:05.400 --> 0:08:08.400 She frequently attended parties in Oyster Bay and even braved 0:08:08.400 --> 0:08:12.480 Manhattan for concerts and operas. Between all her traveling, volunteering, 0:08:12.520 --> 0:08:15.200 and keeping up with friends and family, Edith guided how 0:08:15.240 --> 0:08:17.720 Tier was remembered in the eyes of the public. Not 0:08:17.800 --> 0:08:20.240 only did she destroy many of their love letters, she 0:08:20.360 --> 0:08:22.520 also had a lot of say and deciding which documents 0:08:22.520 --> 0:08:25.160 got passed on to historians. It's for this reason that 0:08:25.240 --> 0:08:27.840 some scholars, including Michael Cullinane, who we spoke to in 0:08:27.920 --> 0:08:31.160 previous episodes of this podcast, consider Edith the true gatekeeper 0:08:31.160 --> 0:08:34.520 of Tier's legacy. She was the gatekeeper of Sagamore Hill too. 0:08:34.760 --> 0:08:37.720 After Tier died, his eldest son Ted had intended to 0:08:37.760 --> 0:08:41.360 take over the estate and raise his family there. Edith, however, 0:08:41.480 --> 0:08:44.079 didn't plan on moving. She wanted Sagamore Hill to be 0:08:44.160 --> 0:08:46.920 a center for the whole family, and eventually allotted a 0:08:46.960 --> 0:08:48.960 few acres of land to Ted so he could build 0:08:48.960 --> 0:08:52.760 his own home. He did, and these days it's known 0:08:52.800 --> 0:08:56.199 as the Old Orchard Museum. Edith lived at Sagamore Hill 0:08:56.240 --> 0:08:57.959 for the rest of her life and died there on 0:08:58.000 --> 0:09:01.920 September at the age of eighty seven. She's buried at 0:09:01.960 --> 0:09:05.320 Young's Memorial Cemetery with her husband. Now let's move on 0:09:05.320 --> 0:09:14.040 to the Roosevelt kids. Edith and Theodore's oldest son, Ted 0:09:14.080 --> 0:09:17.760 the Third, or Ted Jr. Technically followed his father into politics, 0:09:18.240 --> 0:09:21.320 but his path there was roundabout, and his defining legacy 0:09:21.559 --> 0:09:24.719 was mostly a military one. After graduating from Harvard in 0:09:24.760 --> 0:09:27.200 nineteen o nine, Ted worked for a carpet company and 0:09:27.240 --> 0:09:30.240 then an investment banking firm. After World War One broke 0:09:30.240 --> 0:09:32.800 out in Europe in nineteen fourteen, he planned for the 0:09:32.840 --> 0:09:36.040 inevitability of US involvement by helping to organize a training 0:09:36.080 --> 0:09:39.000 program in Plattsburgh, New York, which marked the beginning of 0:09:39.040 --> 0:09:43.520 his lifelong passion for military service. In April nineteen seventeen, 0:09:43.679 --> 0:09:46.880 the US entered the war, and Ted immediately commissioned major 0:09:47.240 --> 0:09:53.319 was among the first soldiers sent to France. His wife, 0:09:53.360 --> 0:09:56.720 Eleanor Butler Alexander left their children with Edith and set 0:09:56.720 --> 0:09:58.679 off for France as well, where she ran a y 0:09:58.800 --> 0:10:02.680 m c A, organized volunteers, and taught French to American soldiers. 0:10:03.120 --> 0:10:06.600 The press lauded Ted as an adept, heroic leader, and 0:10:06.640 --> 0:10:10.680 so did his father. Our pride even surpasses our anxiety, 0:10:10.920 --> 0:10:14.400 tr wrote, I walk with my head higher because of you. 0:10:17.240 --> 0:10:19.439 A bullet to the knee during a nineteen eighteen battle 0:10:19.440 --> 0:10:21.280 would keep Ted away from the front lines for the 0:10:21.320 --> 0:10:23.720 rest of the war, and he soon set his sights 0:10:23.760 --> 0:10:27.360 on public service. Throughout the nineteen twenties and thirties, Ted 0:10:27.400 --> 0:10:31.120 held a number of positions, including New York Assemblyman, Assistant 0:10:31.120 --> 0:10:34.240 Secretary of the Navy, governor of Puerto Rico, and Governor 0:10:34.320 --> 0:10:38.160 General of the Philippines. He also spearheaded the establishment of 0:10:38.160 --> 0:10:40.760 the American Legion, ran for Governor of New York but 0:10:40.920 --> 0:10:44.520 didn't win, and eventually settled into a vice presidency at 0:10:44.520 --> 0:10:47.880 the publishing house Double Day Dorin. When the US got 0:10:47.920 --> 0:10:50.120 involved in World War Two, a middle aged, Ted was 0:10:50.200 --> 0:10:52.960 undeterred by his heart problems or the arthritis that forced 0:10:53.040 --> 0:10:55.840 him to walk with a cane. He enlisted, was promoted 0:10:55.840 --> 0:10:59.800 to brigadier general, and fought in Algeria. In Italy, he 0:10:59.880 --> 0:11:02.800 was accompanyed by his son Quentin, named for Ted's younger brother, 0:11:02.800 --> 0:11:04.959 who had died during World War One and had been 0:11:04.960 --> 0:11:09.240 buried in France. Then came d day. Ted led the 0:11:09.280 --> 0:11:12.000 troops onto Utah Beach, earning a Medal of Honor for 0:11:12.040 --> 0:11:15.640 his valor. He survived, but a month after the battle, 0:11:15.679 --> 0:11:17.880 while still in France, Ted died of a heart attack. 0:11:18.640 --> 0:11:21.400 He was buried in the Normandy American Cemetery in France. 0:11:22.440 --> 0:11:25.199 In nineteen fifty five, at the request of the Roosevelt family, 0:11:25.559 --> 0:11:28.240 his brother Quentin's remains were relocated to rest there too. 0:11:29.040 --> 0:11:35.760 We'll be right back in. Ted Jr. Published All in 0:11:35.800 --> 0:11:38.760 the Family, a memoir with many colorful anecdotes from the 0:11:38.840 --> 0:11:42.520 Roosevelt's childhood. One of them really captures the spirit of 0:11:42.559 --> 0:11:51.840 his younger brother, Kermit. When father read to us, we 0:11:51.920 --> 0:11:55.600 all interrupted him continually with questions, but Kermit was by 0:11:55.600 --> 0:11:59.400 far the worst offender. Ted wrote one why bred another 0:11:59.440 --> 0:12:02.320 so quickly? In his mind? That soon reading almost stopped. 0:12:03.160 --> 0:12:06.760 Kermit's insatiable curiosity only strengthened as he got older, and 0:12:06.840 --> 0:12:08.719 in a way, his whole life was a quest to 0:12:08.800 --> 0:12:11.560 learn as much as he possibly could. He accompanied his 0:12:11.600 --> 0:12:14.360 father on both the legendary African Safari of nineteen o 0:12:14.520 --> 0:12:17.280 nine and the life threatening journey along Amazon's River of 0:12:17.280 --> 0:12:20.800 Doubt in nineteen thirteen and fourteen. Without his father, he 0:12:20.840 --> 0:12:23.640 globe trotted around places like Asia, the Indies, and the 0:12:23.679 --> 0:12:27.560 Galapagos Islands, exercising his penchant for picking up languages along 0:12:27.559 --> 0:12:33.360 the way. He could speak or read almost ten including Portuguese, Swahili, Arabic, 0:12:33.520 --> 0:12:37.640 and Greek. Kermit built an impressive resume. He authored several 0:12:37.640 --> 0:12:40.600 books and countless articles about his adventures, and he also 0:12:40.640 --> 0:12:43.840 wrote book reviews and essays about his father. He also 0:12:43.880 --> 0:12:46.320 worked at a bank in Buenos Aires and founded his 0:12:46.360 --> 0:12:50.240 own steamship company. He commanded British forces during World War 0:12:50.280 --> 0:12:53.120 One and later helped bring about the modern US Merchant Marine. 0:12:53.880 --> 0:12:56.640 He fathered four children with his wife, Belle Wyatt Willard. 0:12:57.000 --> 0:13:00.000 He was president of the National Association of Audubon Society 0:13:00.280 --> 0:13:03.040 what would later become the Audubon Society, and he even 0:13:03.120 --> 0:13:06.640 rubbed shoulders with Gertrude Stein and William Butler Yates. But 0:13:06.840 --> 0:13:10.080 as Edmund Morris wrote in his book Colonel Roosevelt, Kermit's 0:13:10.080 --> 0:13:13.160 nomadic nature and marvelous talent for languages fought against the 0:13:13.160 --> 0:13:17.760 confinements of marriage and work. Depression steadily claimed him. He 0:13:17.840 --> 0:13:22.079 became a philanderer and insatiable drinker, and as his body thickened, 0:13:22.200 --> 0:13:25.880 developed a startling resemblance to his father. Kermit fought with 0:13:25.880 --> 0:13:28.319 British forces again at the beginning of World War Two, 0:13:28.640 --> 0:13:30.920 but he was soon sent home because of his weak heart. 0:13:31.800 --> 0:13:35.200 He started drinking again, thinking military service would do him good. 0:13:35.600 --> 0:13:38.840 His wife and younger brother, Archie, asked then President Franklin 0:13:38.920 --> 0:13:41.720 Roosevelt to commission him in the American Army. He was 0:13:41.760 --> 0:13:44.400 sent to Alaska, where he helped to organize a militia, 0:13:44.520 --> 0:13:47.120 but the assignment wasn't the studying force his family had 0:13:47.120 --> 0:13:51.080 hoped for. In June nine, Kermit took his own life. 0:13:51.800 --> 0:13:54.080 His mother, eighty one at the time, was told that 0:13:54.120 --> 0:13:57.640 he had died of a heart attack. Kermit is buried 0:13:57.640 --> 0:14:00.840 at the Fort Richardson National Cemetery in a garage, Alaska, 0:14:02.200 --> 0:14:09.680 m in TR's own words, his fourth child, Ethel was 0:14:09.920 --> 0:14:13.320 a jolly, naughty, wacky baby, too attractive for anything, and 0:14:13.440 --> 0:14:16.280 thoroughly able to hold her own in the world. Ethel 0:14:16.320 --> 0:14:18.680 wasn't too attractive to rough house with her siblings, though, 0:14:19.360 --> 0:14:21.760 As Edward J. Renahan Jr. Writes in his book The 0:14:21.800 --> 0:14:25.240 Lions Pride Theodore Roosevelt and his family In Peace and War, 0:14:25.800 --> 0:14:29.040 Ethel was a wild tomboy who spent her early years 0:14:29.160 --> 0:14:33.120 swinging from trees with her brothers, running relay races, rowing 0:14:33.120 --> 0:14:36.360 on Oyster Bay, and riding a succession of favorite horses. 0:14:36.920 --> 0:14:40.480 But as she got older, Ethel became the reserved, responsible 0:14:40.560 --> 0:14:44.560 daughter that her impulsive older sister Alice never was. While 0:14:44.600 --> 0:14:48.520 tr called Alice his liability child, he praised Ethel as 0:14:48.560 --> 0:14:51.720 the asset child. She stood beside her mother on White 0:14:51.720 --> 0:14:55.560 House receiving lines. She taught Sunday school to less fortunate children. 0:14:55.880 --> 0:14:58.880 In nineteen fourteen, World War One gave Ethel the opportunity 0:14:59.000 --> 0:15:01.480 to devote herself to all tier work full time. She 0:15:01.520 --> 0:15:05.000 had just married surgeon Richard Derby, and the two both 0:15:05.040 --> 0:15:08.200 treated wounded soldiers at the American Ambulance Hospital in France, 0:15:08.480 --> 0:15:17.480 years before the United States officially entered the Fray. Much 0:15:17.520 --> 0:15:22.000 like her grandfather, the Ethel was committed to humanitarianism. After 0:15:22.040 --> 0:15:24.640 the war, she supported a number of causes, many of 0:15:24.680 --> 0:15:27.440 which were based in or around Oyster Bay, where she 0:15:27.480 --> 0:15:30.560 lived with her husband and children. She volunteered for the 0:15:30.600 --> 0:15:34.120 Red Cross and pushed for affordable housing for African Americans 0:15:34.120 --> 0:15:36.320 in the area. She was an active member of both 0:15:36.320 --> 0:15:38.920 her church and the local nursing service, and she also 0:15:38.960 --> 0:15:42.040 became a trustee of New York's American Museum of Natural History, 0:15:42.320 --> 0:15:45.960 an institution her grandfather had helped found. The Ethel pursued 0:15:46.000 --> 0:15:48.560 her own charitable passions, she still made time to further 0:15:48.600 --> 0:15:51.560 her father's conservation efforts and solidify the Roosevelt legacy in 0:15:51.600 --> 0:15:54.200 Oyster Bay, and we can thank Ethel for the preservation 0:15:54.200 --> 0:15:57.040 of Sagamore Hill too. She helped establish the house as 0:15:57.040 --> 0:15:59.320 a National Historic Site after her mother died there in 0:16:00.040 --> 0:16:02.760 eight Ethel lived in Oyster Bay until her death in 0:16:02.840 --> 0:16:08.160 nineteen seventy seven at six. She's buried in Young's Memorial Cemetery. 0:16:08.720 --> 0:16:10.800 While all of the Roosevelt children treated the White Houses 0:16:10.840 --> 0:16:13.440 their playground in one way or another, a few of 0:16:13.520 --> 0:16:20.200 Archibald's antics were especially memorable. It was little Archie who 0:16:20.240 --> 0:16:22.320 smuggled a Christmas tree into the White House in nineteen 0:16:22.360 --> 0:16:25.400 o two, and his shet limpony Algonquin reportedly rode the 0:16:25.400 --> 0:16:27.560 White House elevator to visit him while he was recovering 0:16:27.560 --> 0:16:30.960 from the measles the following year. Archi, atr second youngest son, 0:16:31.320 --> 0:16:34.360 had inherited his father's sense of adventure and uncanny lack 0:16:34.400 --> 0:16:37.160 of fear. His younger brother, Quentin, was his sidekick in 0:16:37.200 --> 0:16:40.960 the White House and beyond. As Mars wrote in Colonel Roosevelt, 0:16:41.240 --> 0:16:43.800 the two brothers were as different as Huck Finn and 0:16:43.920 --> 0:16:48.640 Tom Sawyer. Quentin was easy going and uncompetitive, whereas tears 0:16:48.680 --> 0:16:52.160 Aid called Archie the pugnacious member of the family. He 0:16:52.240 --> 0:16:54.840 takes up the cudgel at every chance, the Aid wrote, 0:16:55.600 --> 0:16:58.960 Archie's favorite companion may have been Quentin, but his personality 0:16:59.000 --> 0:17:02.240 mirrored his older brother at Juniors in many ways. So 0:17:02.320 --> 0:17:05.399 did his career. Like Ted, Archie worked for a carpet 0:17:05.400 --> 0:17:08.800 company after graduating Harvard and was wounded in France during 0:17:08.840 --> 0:17:11.760 World War One. After the war, Archie spent a few 0:17:11.880 --> 0:17:15.399 years in the oil industry before founding his own investment firm. 0:17:15.400 --> 0:17:17.880 His success kept his wife Grace and there are four 0:17:17.960 --> 0:17:20.679 children from failing the worst of the Great Depression. But 0:17:20.840 --> 0:17:23.080 Archie abandoned the comfort of his office to join the 0:17:23.119 --> 0:17:25.960 American effort in World War Two. He fought in New 0:17:25.960 --> 0:17:28.600 Guinea and suffered wounds to the same arm and leg 0:17:28.640 --> 0:17:31.200 that had been shattered in World War One. Though Archie 0:17:31.200 --> 0:17:34.399 survived the war, he never completely recovered. He had always 0:17:34.400 --> 0:17:37.600 been politically conservative, but his postwar years were characterized by 0:17:37.640 --> 0:17:42.520 paranoia and conspiracy theories about communism. He eventually retired to Florida, 0:17:42.600 --> 0:17:45.200 where he died in nineteen seventy nine after a stroke. 0:17:46.320 --> 0:17:49.359 Archie was eight five years old. During his last days, 0:17:49.359 --> 0:17:52.200 at least, it seems like the ravages of war fell away, 0:17:52.640 --> 0:17:55.560 and he returned instead to happy memories of his boyhood 0:17:55.560 --> 0:17:58.880 in New York. I'm going to Sagamore Hill, he kept repeating. 0:18:00.440 --> 0:18:03.280 And finally, we have Alice, or as she was known 0:18:03.320 --> 0:18:12.720 in d C. The Other Washington Monument. In the End, 0:18:12.800 --> 0:18:15.439 Alice Roosevelt Longworth, whom we covered at length in a 0:18:15.440 --> 0:18:19.320 previous episode, outlived all of her half siblings. She was 0:18:19.400 --> 0:18:23.080 Tire's oldest and arguably wildest child, the only one from 0:18:23.080 --> 0:18:26.480 his first marriage. She died in nine eighty at age 0:18:26.560 --> 0:18:29.480 ninety six, and she's buried in Washington, d C. With 0:18:29.520 --> 0:18:38.320 her daughter, Paulina. We'll be back in a couple of 0:18:38.320 --> 0:18:46.440 weeks with another bonus episode of History Verses. History Verses 0:18:46.520 --> 0:18:49.440 is hosted by me Aeron McCarthy. This episode was written 0:18:49.440 --> 0:18:52.639 by Ellen Gutowski, with fact checking by Austin Thompson. The 0:18:52.680 --> 0:18:55.919 executive producers are Aaron McCarthy, Julie Douglas, and Tyler Klang. 0:18:56.400 --> 0:18:59.680 The supervising producer is Dylan Fagin. The show was edited 0:18:59.680 --> 0:19:02.760 by dyl And Fagan and Lowberlante. To learn more about 0:19:02.760 --> 0:19:05.399 this episode and Theodore Roosevelt, check out our website at 0:19:05.440 --> 0:19:08.639 mental fluss dot com, slash History Versus. That's mental flush 0:19:08.640 --> 0:19:11.479 dot com slash h I S t O R y vs. 0:19:12.359 --> 0:19:14.439 History Versus is a production of I Heart Radio and 0:19:14.480 --> 0:19:18.080 Mental Floss. For more podcasts for my heart Radio, visit 0:19:18.119 --> 0:19:20.960 the I Heart Radio app, Apple podcast, or wherever you 0:19:21.040 --> 0:19:22.320 listen to your favorite shows.