Theodore Roosevelt Dies Suddenly at Oyster Bay Home; Nation Shocked

Theodore Roosevelt Dies Suddenly at Oyster Bay Home; Nation Shocked, Pays Tribute to Former President; Our Flag on All Seas and in All Lands at Half Mast

This event took place on January 6, 1919, and was reported in the The New York Times the following day.

Embolism Then Threatened His Life--Rheumatism Traced to Tooth Infected 20 Years Ago

Oyster Bay, L.I., Jan. 6. -- Theodore Roosevelt, former President of the United States, died this morning between 4 and 4:15 o'clock while asleep in his bed at his home on Sagamore Hill, in this place.

His physicians said that the immediate cause of death was a clot of blood which detached itself from a vein and entered the lungs.

His sudden death took by surprise his physicians as well as all others who had been with him lately. It was announced that the blood clot was not directly due to the inflammatory rheumatism from which he had been suffering for two months, but must be traced to earlier conditions. One of the contributing causes was the fever which he contracted during his explorations in Brazil, when he discovered the River of Doubt early in 1914. This fever left a poison in the blood which had been a partial cause of several attacks of illness which he had suffered since that time.

Colonel Roosevelt was working hard as late as Saturday, dictating articles and letters. He spent Sunday quietly, but looked and felt well, until shortly before 11 o'clock, when he had difficulty in breathing. After treatment he felt better and returned to bed.

Mrs. Roosevelt looked in to see how he was sleeping at 2 o'clock this morning. He then appeared normal. Two hours later, James Amos, an old negro servant of the family, formerly with them at the White House, thought that there was something wrong with the manner in which Colonel Roosevelt was breathing. Amos had been placed in the next room to keep a close watch over Colonel Roosevelt, and went at once to the bedside. He was alarmed at the hollow sound of his breathing and summoned the trained nurse. When she arrived, the breathing had stopped. Dr. George W. Faller of Oyster Bay, the family physician, was summoned, and found that life had left the body a few minutes before.

Later, the following statement was given out by Dr. Faller and Drs. John H. Richard and John A. Hartwell of New York, who had Colonel Roosevelt under their care at Roosevelt Hospital:

Colonel Roosevelt had been suffering from an attack of inflammatory rheumatism for about two months. His progress had been entirely satisfactory and his condition had not given cause for special concern. On Sunday he was in good spirits and spent the evening with his family, dictating letters. He retired at 11 o'clock, and at 4 o'clock in the morning his manservant who occupied an adjoining room, noticed that, while sleeping quietly, Colonel Roosevelt's breathing was hollow. He died almost immediately, without awakening. The cause of death was an embolus.

An embolus is a clot of blood. Dr. Faller said that it had probably occurred in the lungs, but might have been in the brain.

Colonel Roosevelt was taken from Roosevelt Hospital to Oyster Bay to spend Christmas with his family, but was expected to return for further treatment. The inflammatory rheumatism was due, in the opinion of his physicians, to an infected tooth, which had originally given trouble twenty years ago. Inflammatory rheumatism is not known to be a cause of embolism, and it is not believed that the rheumatism was responsible for his death, although it may have contributed to it.

Colonel Roosevelt suffered from pulmonary embolism at the Roosevelt Hospital three weeks ago, and was then in a critical condition for a time, but his recovery was thought to be thorough.

Mrs. Roosevelt was the only member of the family at home when the death occurred. Captain Archibald Roosevelt had left yesterday with his wife, formerly Miss Mary S. Lockwood, for Boston, on receiving word that her father was dying. Lieut. Col. Theodore Roosevelt, Jr., is in France with the Army of Occupation. Captain Kermit Roosevelt is also in France. His daughter-in- law, Mrs. Richard H. Derby, and her two children had been at Sagamore Hill for Christmas, but had gone to Aiken, S.C. All the members of Colonel Roosevelt's family now in this country at once started for Sagamore Hill on learning of his death.

Colonel Roosevelt himself had no idea that he was seriously ill, and was full of interest in everything in the world and full of plans for the future. He was vexed over his two months of invalidism. When he was asked about his health by visitors his reply was a vigorous "Bully!" He deceived not only himself, his family, and his friends as to the seriousness of his condition, but deceived his physicians as well.

Dr. Faller said that he had been paying two visits a day regularly to Colonel Roosevelt since his return to Oyster Bay and believed that he was improving.

"When I called on him last night at 8 o'clock, which was the regular hour for one of my visits," Dr. Faller said, "I wanted to know his condition, but I could not get him to tell me anything about his case. He talked about almost everything except himself and his condition of health. His months of illness had not made much change in his appearance. He was ruddy, and, to outward appearances, nearly as sturdy as ever. I left him on my first visit in the evening apparently improving rapidly and feeling first-rate.

"I was called again at about 11 o'clock by the nurse. I found Colonel Roosevelt looking about the same, but he said that he was having trouble to get his breath, and that he felt as if his heart would stop beating. He was interested in his condition, but not worried. He had no idea that he was in danger.

"After I had been with him for some time he said that he felt better. When I was called again he was dead."

Colonel Roosevelt had not been confined to his bed at all by illness since he returned from the hospital. He had been down to the village in his automobile once and had several times taken walks about his estate. He felt well generally, but was considerably troubled by pains in his right hand, which was still badly swollen by rheumatism.

Colonel Roosevelt was considered only partially recovered from the rheumatism when he left the hospital on Christmas morning to have Christmas dinner with his family. He was met on his arrival at his home by the two Derby children. One of them hailed him by saying:

Colonel Roosevelt started to be very cautious and to take good care of himself on his return to his home, but he was soon back in his old stride, dictating letters and articles with his normal prolific energy. He spent most of the afternoon on Thursday dictating, and resumed his work on Saturday. According to his physician, he was dictating letters only a few hours before his death.

His last work was on editorial articles for The Kansas City Star, and on an article for the Metropolitan Magazine. About the last thing he did was to write a long letter to his son, Theodore Roosevelt, Jr., in which he enclosed proofs of his last article for the Metropolitan.

The last words uttered by Colonel Roosevelt were to his colored servant Amos after he had retired, and they were:

One of Colonel Roosevelt's last visitors, outside of the physicians and his family, was John Gerardi, a barber. Colonel Roosevelt usually made a practice of shaving himself, but since he has been ill, he has been visited regularly by Gerardi.

"He was in the sitting room in an easy chair yesterday," said Gerardi, "when I came in. He started to get up and said, 'Hello, John,' in the friendly way he always spoke. Then he said:

"'You don't have to send any of your circulars to me when you want something for the feast of Saint Rocco. Come yourself, John.'

"He shook hands with me, when I was through. He was one fine man. If anybody was sick or needed help in the village, you never had to go to Colonel Roosevelt but once."

The village of Oyster Bay was stunned by the news of his death. Colonel Roosevelt was appreciated by the village as a world figure, but he also was looked upon as much of a fellow- townsman as the village blacksmith or any other local citizen. The Oyster Bay flag was lowered at once to half mast, crepe went up on the fire house, the rooms of the Masonic Lodge and elsewhere in the village, while all the residents of the town went about with an appearance of deep personal grief.

Colonel Roosevelt was a member of the local lodge of Masons, and never failed to keep up his interest in it. He had made a habit for many years of visiting Masonic lodges wherever he went, as a member of the Oyster Bay lodge, and, returning, to tell his brother Masons here of his visits. He found Masonic lodges when he was in Africa at Mairobe, and in South America he found a lodge on the Asuncion River. The Masons here knew from Colonel Roosevelt of the doings of Masonic lodges in all parts of the world. The members of the local lodge suggested a Masonic funeral yesterday, but this was dropped when the wishes of the family became known.

When Colonel Roosevelt returned from his South American journey in 1914, he gave the first account of his discoveries in an address at the local church, months ahead of the announcement of the discovery of the mysterious Brazilian River, now the Rio Teodoro, in a magazine. He was a village institution as the master of ceremonies over the Christmas tree in Christ Episcopal Church, and in the role of Santa Claus at the Cove Neck School, near Sagamore Hill, where all of his children learned the A B C's. Last Christmas was the first time that Colonel Roosevelt had failed to take charge of these functions since he left the White House, with the exception of the Christmas of 1913, when he was on his way to South America. His son, Captain Archie, took his place last Christmas as the Santa Claus of the Cove Neck School.

Colonel Roosevelt's old negro servants were inconsolable. James Amos, to whom he addressed his last words, and his coachman, Charles Lee, had been with him since his White House days. Charles Lee was the son of a man who had been the personal servant of General Robert E. Lee. Charles Lee had been an employe of the late General Fitzhugh Lee, and left the service of the General to go with Colonel Roosevelt when the latter was in the White House.

"I have lost the best friend I have ever had," said Lee, when he could find voice, "and the best friend any man ever had."

The servants and the old personal friends of Colonel Roosevelt, as well as the members of his family, were especially affected by the news of his death, because they thought he was getting well rapidly. Bulletins of the Colonel's condition had come to the village from Sagamore Hill by word of mouth every day since he had been home, and the story always was that the patient had said he was feeling "bully" and "great."

The news of his sudden death was not believed when it first came to the village. When it was verified by the local physicians, photographs of Colonel Roosevelt, many of them autographed, appeared in shop and residence windows draped in mourning.

The telegraph office was hardly opened when telegrams of condolence began to arrive. They were soon coming in too fast for the single operator. Two more telegraphers were put to work, but the volume of messages was soon far beyond their capacity to receive them.

W. Emlen Roosevelt, a cousin, living near the village, was the first relative of the family to arrive in the morning after the news of Colonel Roosevelt's death. He had called at Sagamore Hill yesterday and found Colonel Roosevelt in good spirits, so that the news staggered him. He reported that Mrs. Roosevelt had borne the death of her husband with great fortitude. Mrs. Theodore Roosevelt, Jr., arrived during the morning.

Others who called at the home today were Mr. and Mrs. Theodore Douglas Robinson, Elon R. Hooker, former Treasurer of the Progressive Party; Joseph W. Bishop, and Miss Josephine Stryker, Colonel Roosevelt's private secretary.

Five airplanes from Quentin Roosevelt Field flew in "V" formation over Sagamore Hill in the afternoon and dropped wreaths of laurel about the house. They flew very low, sometimes circling just over the tops of the trees, and letting fall the wreaths within a few feet of the house.

The airplane squadron was under the command of Lieutenant M. S. Harmon. Three of his fellow pilots were Lieutenant L. G. Williams, Lieutenant Coates, and Lieutenant Parnell. Quentin Roosevelt Field, which is between Mineola and Westbury, was so named after the death of Colonel Roosevelt's son in France.

Lieutenant Harmon announced that an airplane watch would be kept over Sagamore Hill until the hour of the funeral on Wednesday. The watch will be maintained night and day, one plane relieving another.

Colonel Roosevelt was a personal acquaintance of hundreds of the American air pilots, especially those on Long Island, many of whom had been his guests at Oyster Bay. Every week that he has been at home since the war began he had been visited by men from all branches of the service. The War Camp Community Service made a practice of taking about thirty men from Camp Mills or other military, naval, and aircraft stations to visit Colonel Roosevelt every Saturday afternoon. He would be on the front porch, waiting to give them a regular Roosevelt welcome and to assure them that they all came to Sagamore Hill on "the most favored nation" basis. He took great pleasure in showing these boys over his trophy rooms, where the two most striking exhibits were the gigantic elephant tusks presented to him by King Menelik of Abyssinia and a great tome in which was engrossed and illuminated the entire pedigree of ex-Emperor Wilhelm, autographed and dedicated by him.

Colonel Roosevelt took the deepest pleasure in the letters which he received from many of these soldiers after they had reached the other side and gone into action. He was in regular correspondence with some of them.

Only the members of Colonel Roosevelt's own family and his most intimate friends knew how deeply he suffered because of the death of his youngest son, Quentin, who was killed in an airplane combat in France on July 14. This, however, is believed to have been one of the contributing causes of his death.

Colonel Roosevelt received his first inkling that this had occurred when a correspondent at Oyster Bay brought him a dispatch, censored until it was unintelligible, but containing some reference to one of the Roosevelt boys. As soon as he read it Colonel Roosevelt took his visitor into another room, so that Mrs. Roosevelt should not learn the topic that was under discussion.

"Theodore and Archie are in hospitals," he said. "Kermit is on his way from Mesopotamia to France. It must be Quentin."

When the news was confirmed next day, Colonel Roosevelt, who had always declared that families should accept cheerfully the sacrifice of their sons in the war, went to his office at 347 Madison Avenue as usual, attended to his work, and later issued a statement in which he said that he and Mrs. Roosevelt took pride in his death. The following day he kept his engagement to address the unofficial Republican State Convention at Saratoga Springs, where the enthusiasm for him resulted in a unanimous attempt to induce him to run for Governor.

Colonel Roosevelt's recent illness followed within a week after his long and strenuous address at Carnegie Hall just before the election, which he made the occasion of a reply to President Wilson's appeal to the people to elect a Democratic Congress. On the Saturday night following this speech he was troubled with a badly swollen ankle. When this continued he went to Roosevelt Hospital, where it was found that he had inflammatory rheumatism, complicated with other troubles. Dr. J. H. Richards, one of his physicians who treated him at Roosevelt Hospital, said today that a detached clot of blood had nearly caused the death of Colonel Roosevelt while at the hospital, and that it was recognized that there was some danger of a second such attack.

"Pulmonary embolism is not a usual occurrence in cases of inflammatory rheumatism," he said. "Embolism comes in childhood but not ordinarily in adult life."

The inflammatory rheumatism which the Colonel suffered was traceable twenty years back to an infected tooth, it was said. While he was at the hospital the rheumatism spread to nearly every joint in his body. At the time that he left the hospital, however, the attending physicians issued a statement that the disease was taking a normal course and nothing extraordinary was recognized in his condition.

At his death Colonel Roosevelt carried in his body the bullet which was fired by Schrank, at Milwaukee during the Presidential campaign of 1912, which nearly resulted in Colonel Roosevelt's death, because he went on and delivered his speech immediately after the attack.

This and other shocks to his constitution, it was said, might have contributed to the condition which finally brought about his end. Colonel Roosevelt survived innumerable accidents and dangers to his life, which might have left some mark on his constitution. When he first entered the White House, his Secretary of State, John Hay, concluded a letter of praise for Colonel Roosevelt by saying: "He will not live long."

He referred to a series of accidents to the President, each one of which was not far from fatal. Of all the accidents which Colonel Roosevelt went through, that which left the worst effects happened in South America. He tore his leg badly when he was thrown from a boat while descending the River of Doubt and the wound became badly infected. While ill from this he suffered an attack of fever. His health was never sound for any long period since his return from South America early in 1914.

This wound in his leg was directly responsible for the complication of diseases which sent him to the hospital in February of last year, where for a time his life was despaired of. He suffered from a fistula and from an abscess in the ear, which stopped just before it reached the mastoid process.

Even after this illness his energy would not allow him to lead a cautious life. Shortly after his recovery he undertook a trip in the West for the National Security League and made a number of speeches. It was during this tour that he had his historic reconciliation with ex-President Taft at the Hotel Blackstone in Chicago.

In June, while he was in the Middle West, he had a severe attack of erysipelas, but refused to go to a hospital. In spite of intense suffering, he made speeches at Omaha, Indianapolis, and St. Louis. Taking his physician with him he made a 120-mile automobile trip to keep speaking engagements and returned to Indianapolis leaving his physician a "wreck," while he was fresh and vigorous physically though in a good deal of pain. He came home by train and spent a part of his first day chopping wood.

Besides carrying a bullet in his body, Colonel Roosevelt was partially blind and partially deaf. The sight of his left eye was destroyed while he was in the White House in a boxing match. The hearing of one ear was destroyed by the abscess in his ear last February. He had suffered from broken ribs on numerous occasions, mostly in falls from horses, and a strained ligament on a rib caused him a severe attach of pleurisy in 1916. After that attack he was ordered by his physicians to give up violent exercise, but this advice he would not follow.

Colonel Roosevelt would never go to a physician unless he was in a bad way. He would not admit that he could become ill and the idea of regular examinations and medical care never attracted him. He was perplexed and indignant with himself when the attack of disease came on in February of last year which sent him to Roosevelt Hospital. This began with a fainting spell, the first of the kind he had ever suffered. When he recovered consciousness and learned what had happened, he exclaimed:

When he was at a farm in Stamford, Conn., in 1917, reducing flesh by the most violent exercise conceivable, in spite of medical advice that violent exercise was dangerous to him, he became very angry over a report that his health was seriously impaired and issued a statement, in which he said:

"That is a complete fake. I haven't seen a physician for months. No human being told me to cancel a speaking engagement or take a complete rest."

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While he was President. His selfish and egotistical third-party run gave the country the disastrous Woodrow Wilson.

It was only short-sighted and egotistical if you know nothing about Teddy Roosevelt. The reason he is the greatest President the US has ever known is that he wasn't a party man - he was an idea man with the ability to work within the party system to get good things done.

The reason he went back into the race wasn't totally ego, (although he did have a big problem with Taft personally,) it was more the fact that he saw Taft as a political hack who was letting the bosses back into the ballgame and undoing much of the work he had done in society and in the military.

You have to remember the only reason he became President is because the Republican bosses in NYC didn't want him to be Governor of New York and ruin their fun, so they pushed him as vice-president where they thought he would be forgotten for eight years, except fate intervened.

In many ways, he was more progressive than Republican even when he was in office. Everyone remembers "walk softly and carry a big stick" but giving people a "square deal" was just as important to him.

Busting the powers of the unions, while limiting the abuses of monopolies; attacking corruption and establishing the national park system; protecting America's borders and America's kitchens.

While I thank God every day that we have GW in charge, in many ways its only because I believe he has a lot of the same characteristics as TR. (At least I did until he started pulling all of these LBJ "great society" giveaways out of his bag of tricks.) :(

..his selfish and egotistical third-party run gave the country the disastrous Woodrow Wilson...

Sinky, you'd be the most niggling poster who's ever floated through FR's punchbowl. You backstab your betters and tear everything down, all just to satisfy your craving for any kind of attention. I look forward to the day when JR finally tires of your whining and naysaying and gives you your long-overdue boot.

My favorite quote from TR...

The Man In The Arena

"It is not the critic who counts, not the man who points out how the strong man stumbles, or where the doer of deeds could have done them better. The credit belongs to the man in the arena, whose face is marred by dust and sweat and blood, who strives valiantly...who knows the great enthusiasms, the great devotions, who spends himself in a worthy cause, who at the best knows in the end the triumph of high achievement, and who at the worst, if he fails, at least fails while daring greatly, so that his place shall never be with those cold and timid souls who have never known neither victory nor defeat."

Teddy Roosevelt

A FEW MORE QUOTES FROM THEODORE ROOSEVELT...

I care not what others think of what I do, but I care very much about what I think of what I do. That is character!

Only those who are fit to live do not fear to die. And none are fit to die who have shrunk from the joy of life and the duty of life. Both life and death are parts of the same Great Adventure.

To waste, to destroy, our natural resources, to skin and exhaust the land instead of using it so as to increase its usefulness, will result in undermining in the days of our children the very prosperity which we ought by right to hand down to them....

A finer body of men has never been gathered by any nation than the men who have done the work of building the Panama Canal; the conditions under which they have lived and have done their work have been better than in any similar work ever undertaken in the tropics; they have all felt an eager pride in their work; and they have made not only America but the whole world their debtors by what they have accomplished.

Extraordinary. Extraordinary man.

I'm a very keen hunter, like Roosevelt was. But I'm amazed at his sensitivity to nature, and jealous at his oneness with the natural world. I've thought about it a lot, and I guess maybe the difference is the amount of time- months, per expedition- he was able to spend in the bush. That kind of commitment must heighten the sensitivity to one's surroundings enormously. Sadly, due to the crazy pressures of modern life, so few of us can commit that amount of time. Who knows? Maybe, when I hit retirement? I'll have to comfort myself with that. Once again, I really appreciate your posting this obituary, BC.

"Only those are fit to live who do not fear to die; and none are fit to die who have shrunk from the joy and the duty of life. Life, and Death, are both part of the same Great Adventure."

Theodore Roosevelt, 1918. Opening to his last book "The Great Adventure", which I read as a 19-year old college student, and which instantly became the seminal work that informed my vision of America's duty and the meaning of patriotism for the rest of my life.

When I was commissioned as a military officer, I took the long drive to Oyster Bay, and walked up to his grave site. There, alone with my thoughts, I thanked him for being such a great influence on me, and saluted.

Corny, perhaps. But sincere. The Colonel was one of the greatest men to ever hold the office of President.

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