Edith (Kermit ) Roosevelt - Reference

US first lady (1901–9), born in Norwich, Connecticut, USA. She became the second wife of Theodore Roosevelt in 1886 (the first had died in 1884). She promoted a sense of harmony in the White House, using caterers for entertaining and a personal secretary to handle her correspondence. Following Roosevelt's death in 1919, she became active in charity work and remained a firm Republican, openly opposing Franklin Roosevelt's bid for the presidency in 1932.

Edith Kermit Carow Roosevelt (August 6, 1861 – September 30, 1948), second wife of Theodore Roosevelt, was First Lady of the United States from 1901 to 1909.

Edith Kermit Carow knew Theodore Roosevelt from infancy; Young Edith Carow had a younger sister, Emily Tyler Carow (1865-1939).

Attending Miss Comstock's school, she acquired the proper finishing touch for a young lady of that era.

Theodore Roosevelt and Edith were married in London in December 1886. They settled down in a house on Sagamore Hill, at Oyster Bay, headquarters for a family that added five children in ten years: Theodore Jr., Kermit, Ethel Carow, Archibald Bulloch, and Quentin. For a short time before reaching the White House, she found herself in competition with future First Lady Helen Taft when Mrs. Taft gave birth to Helen Taft on August 1, 1891 almost two weeks before Ethel Roosevelt was born on August 13, 1891.

After William McKinley's assassination, Mrs. Roosevelt assumed her new duties as First Lady with characteristic dignity.

But in this administration the White House was unmistakably the social center of the land.

After his death in 1919, she traveled abroad but always returned to Sagamore Hill as her home.

Preceded by: Ida Saxton McKinley

First Lady of the United States 1901–1909

Succeeded by: Helen Herron Taft

First Ladies of the United States

M. Washington • A. Adams • M. Jefferson Randolph • D. Madison • E. Monroe • L. Adams • E. Donelson • S. Jackson • A. Van Buren • A. Harrison • J. Harrison • L. Tyler • P. Tyler • J. Tyler • S. Polk • M. Taylor • A. Fillmore • J. Pierce • H. Lane • M. Lincoln • E. Johnson • J. Grant • L. Hayes • L. Garfield • M. McElroy • R. Cleveland • F. Cleveland • C. Harrison • F. Cleveland • I. McKinley • Edith Roosevelt • H. Taft • Ellen Wilson • Edith Wilson • F. Harding • G. Coolidge • L. Hoover • Eleanor Roosevelt • B. Truman • M. Eisenhower • J. Kennedy • Lady Bird Johnson • P. Nixon • B. Ford • R. Carter • N. Reagan • B. Bush • H. Clinton • L. Bush

Reference

Original text based on White House biography