1. Quentin Roosevelt
Theodore Roosevelt's first marriage produced one child, Alice. Following the death of Alice,
Roosevelt married his childhood friend, Edith Carow. Together Roosevelt and Carow produced four
boys and a girl. The last of their progeny, Quentin, arrived in 1897.
His brothers often challenged Quentin, the younger sibling of three Roosevelt brothers, and on one
occasion, he almost drowned. The brothers dared Quentin to jump off a high rock into a deepwater
cover near Oyster Bay. Quentin took their dares with a good nature.
A Natural Writer
Quentin's schoolwork was average for his age, yet he showed an aptitude for writing. A fan of Jack
London, Quentins stories belied a dark, tragic, yet smart, protagonist. The stories that Quentin
authored were apparently a contrast to the happy and content child.
Baseball was a passion that Quentin did not share with any of his siblings. While living in the White
House during his famous fathers presidency, Quentin notoriously carved a baseball diamond in the
White House lawn with the assistance of the White House groundskeeper, a man employed thus
since the Lincoln administration.
In the Image of his Father
Of all of the children, Quentin most looked like his father. His face was round like Teddys, and his
body was both chunky and muscular. Quentin also shared his fathers quick wit, high morals, and he
commanded a mastery of the English language. On the downside, he also inherited his fathers poor
eyesight.
About the time Quentin was sixteen he suffered an accident while on a hunting trip with his father
and brother Archie. While hunting in New Mexico a packhorse rolled over on Quentin, causing a
back injury, that although did not break his back, caused him considerable discomfort the rest of his
2. short life.
The First Roosevelt Pilot
Despite his poor eyesight, Quentin volunteered for flight training at the onset of World War I.
Quentin and his cousin, Hall Roosevelt, memorized the eye charts in order to pass their military
physicals. Quentin left Harvard University after two years to join the new Army Air Corps. At the
time, the Army only had thirty-five qualified pilots. The training took place on Mineola airfield on
Long Island, allowing Quentin to live at home at Sagamore Bay and commute daily. On many of his
training flights, Quentin would buzz Sagamore Bay where his father stood waving on the porch.
Concurrent with his flight training, Quentin brought his twenty-year-old girlfriend, Flora Payne
Whitney, home to meet his parents. Flora's parents were upper class and very wealthy compared to
the upper-middle class status of the Roosevelts. Edith and Teddy soon warmed to Flora when they
found her more attuned to their work-and-duty ethic and less to the high society party crowd that
Floras parents belonged.
After completing flight training Quentin asked Flora to be his wife and she agreed. The couple said
their last goodbyes as Quentin sailed from New York, bound for France and War. In his farewell
letter to Flora, Quentin wrote, if I am not killed, there will be a time when I draw into New York
again, and you will be there on the pier, just as you were when I left, and there will be no parting for
us for a long time to come.
During the journey to France, his friend Hamilton Coolidge said Quentin was enthusiastic about the
job ahead, yet he would sink into an occasional black gloom. He told Coolidge, That he would not be
surprised if he were killed in a foreign land that in a strange sense it was what he was born and
raised for.
Death of a Presidents Son
On 20 July 1918, the German government released news of Quentin's death. The news release stated
that four days earlier Quentin had valiantly attacked seven German planes deflecting them from
pursuing his squadron. This culminated in a duel between a non-commissioned German pilot and
Quentin and the German outmaneuvered the inexperienced Quentin. The youngest son of the famous
Teddy Roosevelt died by two bullets to the head and crashed into a field. The Germans buried
Quentin with full military honors at the sight of the crash.
The Roosevelt family mourned and Teddy grieved as only a father can. The family maid found Teddy
in a rocking chair, the chair in which he had rocked all his children, muttering to himself, poor
Quinikins! poor Quinikins.
A year after Theodore Roosevelt Jr., died at Normandy, the Army exhumed the remains of Quentin
and interred him next to his brothers grave at the American military cemetery at Sainte-Laurent-s-
r-mer.
References:
Renehan Jr., Edward., The Lions Pride: Theodore Roosevelt and his Family in Peace and War, Oxford
University Press, New York, N.Y. 1998
Roosevelt, Eleanor B. (Mrs. Theodore Roosevelt, Jr.), Day Before Yesterday, Doubleday Company,
3. Inc., Garden City, New York, 1959, 478pp.
Walker, Robert W., The Namesake, The Biography of Theodore Roosevelt, Jr., Brick Tower Press,
New York, 2008
