Theodore Roosevelt, the 26th President of the United States, was an initiate of the Alpha Chapter of Delta Kappa Epsilon at Harvard University. He died on on January 6, 1919, of a coronary embolism. He was 60 years old.
His home, Sagamore Hill, is located in Oyster Bay, New York on Long Island’s north shore. It overlooks the Long Island Sound and it served as the site of the summer White House during Roosevelt’s administration. As I toured Sagamore Hill during my childhood and later when I took my own children there, it was easy to envision President Roosevelt walking the property or carrying on business in the house.
A simple church service took place at Christ Church in Oyster Bay on January 8. Afterwards, the President was laid to rest at Youngs Memorial Cemetery, near Sagamore Hill. According to the Youngs Memorial Cemetery’s website:
Family members and dignitaries made their way up the steep snow-dusted hill, and a bugler blew taps. When the ceremony ended, one mourner stayed behind. Former President William Howard Taft—by turns a political ally and a foe—stood by the grave weeping. As he later wrote to Edith Roosevelt, ‘I loved him always and cherish his memory.’ America felt the same.
