- Theodore Roosevelt is buried in Young’s Memorial Cemetery near his home in Oyster Bay on Long Island in New York. He has a classy, understated gravesite. It is at the top of a short hill and is reached by a 26-step staircase (because he was the 26th president).
- One thing I have learned about the US presidents is that, rather than being the best person in the country for the job, each of them was the right person in the right place at the right time for the mood and needs of the country. If you were to displace any president by 10 years in either direction, none of them would have been electable. The one possible exception to this, I believe, would be Theodore Roosevelt. The man was one of the most brilliant minds this country has ever produced. In addition to being the youngest president we ever had, he was accomplished in many fields besides politics. He wrote dozens of books on an amazing array of topics. His work on the history of the Wild West is still considered an authority today, and his account of the naval battles of the War of 1812 is required reading for both the US and British Naval Academies. He was the first of 3 presidents to win the Nobel Peace Prize (and was the most deserving of the 3, IMO…the other two were Woodrow Wilson and, more recently, Jimmy Carter).
- After leaving office, Roosevelt became increasingly displeased by his hand-picked successor William Howard Taft, so when Taft ran for re-election against Democratic opponent Woodrow Wilson, Roosevelt entered the race as a third-party candidate, effectively splitting the Republican vote with Taft and allowing Wilson to win the race. During the campaign, Roosevelt was preparing to make a speech in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, when a man named John Schrank shot him in the chest. Roosevelt’s 100-page speech and eyeglasses case slowed the bullet but it still lodged in his chest. Stubborn as always, Roosevelt insisted on giving the speech and consented to be taken to the hospital only after the speech was over. The bullet was unable to be located by the doctors, but they stopped the bleeding and he lived with the bullet inside for the remainder of his life. It is likely that the wound contributed to his death a few years later, though, as his physical condition never returned to its former vitality after his hospital stay. Schrank claimed that he shot Roosevelt on the orders of the ghost of William McKinley. Not surprisingly he was found insane and put in an asylum until his death.
- Roosevelt and George Bush are the only two former presidents to have attempts made on their lives after leaving office.