Buried: Young’s Memorial Cemetery, Oyster Bay, New York
Twenty-sixth President - 1901-1909
Born: October 27, 1858, in New York, New York
Died: 4:00 a.m. on January 6, 1919, in Oyster Bay, New York
Age at death: 60
Cause of death: Embolism
Final words: “James, will you please put out the light?”
Admission to Young’s Memorial Cemetery: Free
Theodore Roosevelt, “Rough Rider,” trust buster, Nobel Peace Prize winner, and champion of the Panama Canal, lived for ten years after leaving the White House and had one of the most active retirements of any president. Elected in his own right in 1904 after finishing McKinley’s term, TR promised to retire after only a single full term in the White House. His hand-picked protégé, William Howard Taft, easily won the election of 1908.
After his successor’s inauguration, Roosevelt returned to his Long Island home. He soon left the relative peace of Sagamore Hill to explore Africa. With an entourage numbering in the hundreds, Roosevelt and his son Kermit took a twelve-month safari, collecting samples of African wildlife for the Smithsonian Institution’s collection.
Teddy Roosevelt’s own words on a plaque near his grave
Returning to the United States in 1910, Roosevelt became convinced that President Taft had shifted too far to the right. He decided to challenge the incumbent. Falling short of winning the Republican nomination for president in 1912, he created the Progressive, or Bull Moose party, which split the GOP vote and put Woodrow Wilson in the White House. During the campaign, Roosevelt was the target of an assassination attempt by a deranged gunman. Shot in the chest, Roosevelt proceeded to give his scheduled speech before going to the hospital.
Over the next few years, TR continued to travel and write extensively. His lifelong passion for physical activity was his counterbalance for poor health, but his exertions caught up with him. He was hospitalized for a month in February 1918, following complications after emergency surgery on his leg. He never fully regained his balance. By the time he reached age sixty, TR was deaf in one ear, blind in one eye, and half-crippled with rheumatism. The pain in his joints grew so bad that his doctor ordered bed rest. TR disobeyed and was hospitalized a few days later. He remained in the hospital for seven weeks with his wife Edith by his side.
A considerably weakened Roosevelt returned home to his Sagamore Hill estate late in 1918. Devastated by the death of his youngest son Quentin in World War I, he spent most of his days resting. On January 4, 1919, Roosevelt’s White House valet, James Amos, came to the Roosevelt household to help his former employer. Amos was concerned by what he found: the formerly robust man appeared weak and tired. The next night, Roosevelt complained of shortness of breath. An attending doctor gave him something to help him sleep. As James Amos helped him to bed, Roosevelt asked him to turn out the light. Those were his last words. Teddy Roosevelt died in his sleep of a coronary embolism.
The nation was shocked by his sudden death, and telegrams poured in from around the world. Both houses of Congress adjourned, and a forty-two-member delegation left for New York on a special train for the funeral. Former President William Howard Taft and Henry Cabot Lodge were among the other dignitaries who traveled to Oyster Bay.
As snow fell outside, a private service for the family was held at Sagamore Hill two days after Roosevelt’s death. That afternoon, five hundred invited guests assembled at Christ Episcopal Church in Oyster Bay for a simple funeral service conducted by the Reverend George Talmage. Roosevelt’s flag-draped oak coffin, topped by a wreath and two banners from his beloved Rough Riders cavalry, lay at the front of the church. When the service concluded, Roosevelt’s body was taken by six pallbearers to Young’s Memorial Cemetery for burial. An estimated four thousand people, including many schoolchildren, lined the procession route. At 2:59 p.m., as the casket was lowered into the ground, New York City observed a moment of silence in Roosevelt’s honor.
Roosevelt selected his gravesite on a knoll overlooking the water. His grave is marked by a granite headstone bearing the presidential seal. Twenty-six steps lead to the grave, signifying Roosevelt’s service as the nation’s twenty-sixth president. A plaque on a nearby rock bears his own words: “Keep your eyes on the stars and keep your feet on the ground.” Twenty-four other members of the Roosevelt family are buried in this section, among them his second wife Edith and two of his children.
Touring Theodore Roosevelt’s Tomb at Young’s Memorial Cemetery
Young’s Memorial Cemetery is located in Oyster Bay, New York. It is open every day during daylight hours. Admission is free.
From New York City: Take the Long Island Expressway east to exit 41N. Turn left onto Route 106 and head north. Follow Route 106 to Oyster Bay. Turn right on East Main Street. Go two miles to Young’s Memorial Cemetery, which is located on the right.
To find Theodore Roosevelt’s grave, follow the signs on the cemetery walkway. Roosevelt’s grave is located at the top of the staircase.
For additional information
Sagamore Hill National Historical Site
20 Sagamore Hill Road
Oyster Bay, New York 11771-1809
Phone: (516) 922-4788
Fax: (516) 922-4792
www.nps.gov/sahi
The “Rough Rider’s” final resting place
“Today TR lies near a Long Island bird sanctuary, a fitting end for the great conservationist who had ruffled congressional feathers…”
—Richard Norton Smith
On learning of the death of his youngest son, Quentin, shot down by German gunners in October 1918, Theodore Roosevelt had concealed his heartache behind characteristically belligerent prose. “Only those are fit to live who do not fear to die,” he wrote defiantly, “and none are fit to die who have shrunk from the joy of life and the duty of life. Both life and death are part of the same Great Adventure.”
On the night of January 5, 1919, an exhausted TR put down one of his ever-present volumes and remarked to his wife, Edith, “I wonder if you’ll ever know how I love Sagamore Hill.” Shortly afterward the old lion instructed his valet, “James, will you please put out the light?” They were his last words. Before dawn a blood clot stole into his lungs, carrying off the most lovable of presidents. Three thousand miles away, on a train streaking across the French countryside, Woodrow Wilson was informed of Roosevelt’s death. Observant reporters noticed an expression of surprise on the president’s face, soon replaced by something close to triumph. More gracious was Wilson’s vice president, Thomas Marshall, who said of the fallen rival, “Death had to take him sleeping, for if Roosevelt had been awake, there would have been a fight.”
Vetoing any Washington services, the Roosevelt family instead planned a simple ceremony, without music or eulogy, in a nearby Episcopal chapel. Arriving late, William Howard Taft was put in a pew with family servants before Roosevelt’s son, Archie, spied him. “You’re a dear personal friend and you must come up further,” the young man told Taft, who had more or less reconciled with Roosevelt following their bitter 1912 falling out. Afterwards, mourners made their way to a nearby hillside flecked with snow. Here Taft remained a long while as his friend’s body was lowered into the ground. Some thought they saw tears streaming down his face. Perhaps; that night he attended a New York theater performance. Today TR lies near a Long Island bird sanctuary, a fitting end for the great conservationist who had ruffled congressional feathers by unilaterally preserving wetlands and other habitats filled with the creatures he had loved, and slaughtered, since childhood.
The Roosevelt family plot at Young’s Memorial Cemetery
—RNS