John Aspinwall Roosevelt
| John Aspinwall Roosevelt | |
|---|---|
| Born | March 13, 1916 Hyde Park, New York, United States |
| Died | April 27, 1981 (aged 65) New York City, New York, United States |
| Occupation | US Navy Officer, Businessman |
| Political party | Republican |
| Spouse | Anne Lindsay Clark (b. 1916 d. 1973) Irene Boyd McAlpin |
| Children | Haven Clark Roosevelt Anne Sturgis "Nina" Roosevelt Sara Delano "Sally" Roosevelt Joan Lindsay Roosevelt |
| Parents | Franklin D. Roosevelt and Eleanor Roosevelt |
John Aspinwall Roosevelt (March 13, 1916 – April 27, 1981) was the sixth and last child of the 32nd President of the United States, Franklin Delano Roosevelt, and his wife, Eleanor Roosevelt, and the only Roosevelt son who never sought political office.
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[edit] Early life
John Aspinwall Roosevelt was the youngest child of Franklin and Eleanor Roosevelt. His siblings were Anna E. Roosevelt, James Roosevelt, Elliott Roosevelt and Franklin D. Roosevelt, Jr.. Roosevelt grew up on the Roosevelt estate in Hyde Park, New York and attended preparatory school at Groton.
John and his next oldest sibling, Franklin Jr., were much closer to their mother than the three older Roosevelt children had been. This was due in part because by the time they were born, she was more comfortable in her role as a parent.
Franklin Delano Roosevelt contracted polio, which confined him to a wheelchair for the rest of his life, when John was five years old. Conscious of her husband's disability and determined that the younger children should not miss out on the sports and physical activities that their older siblings had enjoyed, Eleanor Roosevelt learned to swim and skate. She also took John and Franklin Jr. camping and to Europe.
[edit] Career and politics
After graduation from Harvard, his father's alma mater, John worked at Filene's Department Store in Boston until America entered World War II in 1941. He served in the Navy until 1946 and thereafter pursued a business career in California as the Regional Merchandising Manager for Grayson & Robertson Stores in Los Angeles.
Although he never pursued political office, John Roosevelt served on the boards of many organizations, including the Greater New York Council of Boy Scouts of America, the Eisenhower Exchange Fellowship, Roosevelt University, the State University of New York, and the Governmental Affairs Committee.
In 1947, John Roosevelt changed his political affiliation to Republican, a gesture his mother interpreted as an attempt to win support from his wife's family, his father-in-law being a staunchly Republican Boston banker.[1] But in 1952, he went beyond paper registration, actively supporting Dwight D. Eisenhower's bid for the Presidency against Democratic nominee Adlai Stevenson, for whom his mother was just as actively campaigning. His defection from the Democratic Party and his subsequent leadership of Citizens for Eisenhower - he vocally defended Eisenhower's running mate, California Senator Richard Nixon, against attacks by his mother - caused considerable family friction.
The tension was exacerbated when John and his family moved into Stone Cottage next door to Eleanor Roosevelt's home at Val-Kill that same year. He and his brother, Elliott, who lived at nearby Top Cottage, did not get along. Elliott left shortly after John and his family arrived. John subsequently acquired what remained of the Hyde Park property Elliott had farmed with Eleanor Roosevelt. More importantly, the presence of John and his family enabled Eleanor Roosevelt to live at Val-Kill until her death in 1962. She saw John's children often and was particularly close to his daughter, Sara "Sally" Roosevelt. After Eleanor Roosevelt's death, John kept the papers from her Hyde Park home and New York City apartment.
[edit] Uranium interests
At the height of the Cold War, when the US Atomic Energy Commission was desperately seeking sources of uranium for the production of atomic weapons, John Roosevelt became an officer and director of the Standard Uranium Company, reportedly the first and most successful publicly-traded uranium corporation, which registered with the Securities and Exchange Commission in early 1954 and soon attracted heavy investments by industrialist Floyd Odlum, one of the wealthiest men in America.[2] According to an authorized biography of San Francisco hotel magnate (and Democratic Party fund-raiser) Benjamin Swig, Roosevelt was also partnered with Swig and Hollywood producer Louis B. Mayer, the powerful "boss" of Metro Goldwyn Mayer, in what was probably a related consortium, involving uranium investments in southern Utah.[3]
[edit] Later years
In 1956, Roosevelt began consulting for the investment firm of Bache and Company, which he joined in 1967, retiring as a vice-president in 1980. His philanthropic activities included serving as a fund raiser with the National Foundation for Infantile Paralysis, which his father had founded, membership on the executive committee of the Greater New York Council of the Boy Scouts of America and service as a trustee of the State University of New York.
Within three years of Eleanor Roosevelts's death, John divorced and remarried. In 1970, he sold the Val-Kill properties. Thereafter, he and his second wife lived on an estate in Tuxedo, New York. John Roosevelt died of heart failure in 1981.
[edit] Personal life
Roosevelt received his middle name from that of his great-grandmother, Mary Rebecca Aspinwall. His siblings were Anna Eleanor Roosevelt (known as Anna), James Roosevelt, Franklin Delano Roosevelt, Jr. (I) (b./d. 1909), Elliott Roosevelt and Franklin D. Roosevelt, Jr.
He served in World War II as Lieutenant and received the Bronze Star for his logistics work with a carrier task group in the Pacific.
John Aspinwall Roosevelt married Anne Lindsay Clark (1916–1973), a "Boston Brahmin", on June 18, 1938 in Massachusetts. They had a son, Haven Clark Roosevelt, and three daughters, Anne Sturgis "Nina" Roosevelt (b. 1942), Sara Delano "Sally" Roosevelt (1946–1960) and Joan Lindsay Roosevelt (1952–1997).
Their daughter, Sally, was killed in a horse riding accident in 1960.
In 1965, John and Anne Roosevelt obtained a divorce. That same year he married Mrs. Irene Boyd McAlpin (born March 8, 1931).
[edit] References
- Notes
- ^ Eleanor Roosevelt Papers
- ^ Mark Steen,My Old Man, The Uranium King (Charles Steen)
- ^ Walter Blum. Benjamin H. Swig, The Measure of a Man (San Francisco, 1968)
[edit] External links
- 1916 births
- 1981 deaths
- American military personnel of World War II
- American people of Dutch descent
- Harvard University alumni
- American people of Scotch-Irish descent
- American people of Scottish descent
- Bulloch family
- Children of Presidents of the United States
- Delano family
- People from Washington, D.C.
- Roosevelt family
- New York Democrats
- New York Republicans
- Cardiovascular disease deaths in New York
- Deaths from heart failure
