First Lady Edith K. Roosevelt Autographs, Memorabilia & Collectibles

Connecticut-born Edith Kermit Carow (1861-1948) grew up near the Roosevelts in Manhattan and was a constant companion of the Roosevelt children. She even attended kindergarten in their East 20th Street home. Throughout their childhood, Edith and Theodore often went hiking, swimming and rowing together. They quarreled while TR was in college and shortly thereafter, he met Alice Lee. When 19-year-old Alice and 22-year-old Theodore married in 1880, a heartbroken Edith attended the wedding. After Alice died in 1884, a chance meeting of Edith and Theodore in 1885 rekindled their friendship. They were married in 1886 and had five children. Connecticut-born Edith Kermit Carow (1861-1948) grew up near the Roosevelts in Manhattan and was a constant companion of the Roosevelt children. She even attended kindergarten in their East 20th Street home. Throughout their childhood, Edith and Theodore often went hiking, swimming and rowing together. They quarreled while TR was in college and shortly thereafter, he met Alice Lee. When 19-year-old Alice and 22-year-old Theodore married in 1880, a heartbroken Edith attended the wedding. After Alice died in 1884, a chance meeting of Edith and Theodore in 1885 rekindled their friendship. They were married in 1886 and had five children. Theodore Roosevelt died in 1919. Edith Roosevelt may have had legitimate partisan reasons for distancing herself from the Democratic Party Roosevelts, but her comment in the above letter is accurate but incomplete. Franklin Roosevelt was only a fifth cousin of Theodore, but FDR's wife Eleanor, also a Roosevelt by birth, was Theodore's niece.