FLOTUS: First Ladies of the United States

Edith Roosevelt

Edith Kermit Roosevelt (née Carow; August 6, 1861 – September 30, 1948) was the second wife of President Theodore Roosevelt and the first lady of the United States from 1901 to 1909. She also was the second lady of the United States before that in 1901. Roosevelt was the first First Lady to employ a full-time, salaried social secretary. Her tenure resulted in the creation of an official staff and her formal dinners and ceremonial processions served to elevate the position of First Lady.

Early life

Edith was born on August 6, 1861, in Norwich, Connecticut, to merchant Charles Carow (1825–1883) and Gertrude Elizabeth Tyler (1836–1895). Gertrude's father Daniel Tyler (1799–1882) was a Union general in the American Civil War.

Edith's younger sister was Emily Tyler Carow (1865–1939).[3] Edith also had an older brother, Kermit (February 1860 – August 1860), who died one year before her birth. Kermit, her brother's first name and her middle name, was the surname of a paternal great-uncle, Robert Kermit. During her childhood, Edith was known as "Edie."

The girl grew up in a brownstone on Union Square in New York City. Next door lived Theodore Roosevelt (1858–1919). Edith was best friends with his younger sister Corinne (1861–1933).

Edith, Corinne, Theodore, and Elliott had their earliest schooling together at the Roosevelt family home at 28 East 20th Street. Edith later attended Miss Comstock's finishing school.

Although the two may have had a teenage romance, the relationship faded when Roosevelt went to Harvard University. While at Harvard, he met Alice Lee and they married in 1880. Edith attended the wedding.

Marriage

Theodore Roosevelt's first wife, Alice Lee Roosevelt, died on February 14, 1884, aged 22, leaving behind their baby daughter also named Alice. Theodore and Edith rekindled their relationship in 1885. They married in St George's, Hanover Square, London on December 2, 1886, when he was 28 and she was 25. His best man was Cecil Spring Rice, later the British ambassador to the United States during World War I. Rice also maintained a close friendship with the couple for the rest of his life. Theodore and Edith's engagement was announced in the New York Times. After their honeymoon, the couple lived at Sagamore Hill on Long Island, New York. Roosevelt called his first daughter "Baby Lee" instead of "Alice" so as not to remind himself of the death of his first wife.

Together, the couple raised Alice (Theodore's daughter from his previous marriage) and their children: Theodore (1887), Kermit (1889), Ethel (1891), Archibald (1894), and Quentin (1897).

In 1888, Theodore was appointed to the United States Civil Service Commission, where he served until 1895. While Edith supported her husband's decision to accept the position, she lamented that her third pregnancy would detain her at Sagamore Hill. Kermit Roosevelt was born on October 10, 1889, and Edith moved to Washington with their children three months later. During this period, Edith and Henry Adams became close friends.

At Edith's insistence, Theodore did not run for mayor of New York in 1894, because she preferred their life in Washington, D.C., and his job as a U.S. Civil Service Commissioner.

When Theodore became New York City police commissioner in 1895, they moved to New York City. In 1897, Theodore was chosen as Assistant Secretary of the Navy, and the family moved back to Washington.

In 1898, Edith traveled by train to Tampa, Florida, to send her husband off to fight in the Spanish–American War.

Upon his return from Cuba, Edith defied a quarantine to meet him in Montauk, New York, where she assisted veterans at the hospital. In October 1898, when Roosevelt was nominated for the governorship, she helped answer his mail but stayed off the campaign trail.