Edith Roosevelt | |
|---|---|
.jpg) Portrait, c. 1903 | |
| First Lady of the United States | |
| In role September 14, 1901 – March 4, 1909 | |
| President | Theodore Roosevelt |
| Preceded by | Ida Saxton McKinley |
| Succeeded by | Helen Herron Taft |
| Second Lady of the United States | |
| In role March 4, 1901 – September 14, 1901 | |
| Vice President | Theodore Roosevelt |
| Preceded by | Jennie Tuttle Hobart |
| Succeeded by | Cornelia Cole Fairbanks |
| First Lady of New York | |
| In role January 1, 1899 – December 31, 1900 | |
| Governor | Theodore Roosevelt |
| Preceded by | Lois Black |
| Succeeded by | Linda Odell |
| Personal details | |
| Born | Edith Kermit Carow August 6, 1861 Norwich, Connecticut, U.S. |
| Died | September 30, 1948 (aged 87) Oyster Bay, New York, U.S. |
| Resting place | Youngs Memorial Cemetery |
| Spouse | |
| Children | |
| Parents |
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| Signature |  |
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 was previously the second lady of the United States in 1901 and the first lady of New York from 1899 to 1900.
Growing up alongside the Roosevelt family, Edith Carow began a romance with Theodore Roosevelt as a teenager and became a New York socialite. After a falling-out in young adulthood, they split up and did not rekindle their friendship until after Theodore was engaged to his first wife, Alice Hathaway Lee. Edith became engaged to him shortly after Alice's death, and she took in his daughter, also named Alice, as a stepdaughter. The family moved into their new home, Sagamore Hill, and Edith had five children with Theodore. They stayed in Washington, D.C., while he was on the Civil Service Commission, where Edith established a social network of prominent figures, including Henry Adams. The Roosevelts moved back and forth between New York and Washington as Theodore's political career progressed over the following years. Edith became a public figure when her husband became a war hero in the Spanish–American War and was elected governor of New York. Theodore was elected Vice President in March 1901, and she became second lady of the United States for six months, and then became first lady when the assassination of President William McKinley propelled Theodore to the presidency in September of that year.
The exact nature of Edith's influence over Theodore's presidency is unknown, but they frequently spoke about politics and he often took her advice. She kept her husband informed of news stories that she deemed important and worked as an intermediary to get information for him. Edith resented the press, feeling that it was intrusive. She leveraged her influence to control when and how they reported on the Roosevelts, and had professional photographs taken of the family so the press would not need to take their own. Edith also controlled Washington social life, organizing weekly meetings of the cabinet members' wives, and became the gatekeeper of who could attend formal events. She made charitable donations throughout her tenure as first lady, and invited various musical artists to the White House to promote their work. She disapproved of Theodore's chosen successor, William Howard Taft, and there was a mutual animosity between Edith and Taft's wife Helen Herron Taft. Edith's oversight of the 1902 White House renovations and her hiring the first social secretary for a first lady, Belle Hagner, are described by historians as her most enduring legacies.
Edith took up travel in the years after leaving the White House, frequently touring Europe and Latin America. She was severely injured after being thrown off of her horse in 1911, permanently losing her sense of smell. Though she disliked Taft and Woodrow Wilson, Edith discouraged Theodore from his campaign against them in the 1912 presidential election, which Wilson won. Her health declined in the 1910s, and she was devastated by the deaths of her son Quentin in 1918 and then her husband in 1919. She remained politically active, supporting Warren G. Harding in 1920 and Herbert Hoover in 1932. Her support for the latter was an effort to distance herself from Hoover's opponent, Theodore's distant cousin Franklin D. Roosevelt. Edith took an interest in her ancestry in 1920s, writing a book on her ancestors and purchasing her ancestral home in Brooklyn, Connecticut. She lost two more of her sons in the 1940s and was bedridden for the last year of her life. Edith died on September 30, 1948. Historians have consistently ranked her in the upper half of first ladies in periodic polling by the Siena College Research Institute.