Mrs. Roosevelt Visits
Son’s Grave
By the Associated
Press
Feb. 28—Pride and sorrow fought a silent battle in the heart
of a black-garbed woman as she stood the other day in the midst of war’s havoc
on one of the bloodiest battlefields I France, beholding the grave of her fallen
soldier son, a simple grave, but well-cared for by the reverent hands of
comrades.
On an awkward cross, half of wood, half of pieces of
airplane’s propeller, written by a German hand, was inscribed the name:
“Quentin Roosevelt”
The woman was his mother, Mrs. Theodore Roosevelt. All was
silence in this barren plain where but a few months ago raged the roar of
death-belching cannon. With Mrs. Roosevelt was a small party of friends and military
officers.
The woman who had heartily agreed with her husband that their
son should remain where he fell, on France’s soil, and who had come thousands of
miles across the sea, though still bent under a fresh grief, battled
courageously against her emotions.
Tenderly, as if in a last farewell caress for the boy who
sleeps his last sleep underneath, she placed flowers on the grave, then stood
for several minutes, apparently visualizing the tragic but glorious end of the
young aviator.
Lieutenant Colonel Theodore Roosevelt Jr. was with his
mother.
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Harvard Trainees at Hazlehurst Field—Tower Scrapbook
Sitting—Roderick Tower, J.R. Richards, J.H. Baker; Standing,
Quenten Roosevelt, H.P. Trainer T.J.D. Fuller Jr., all Harvard ’15. Photo by American Press Association.
Photo online at https://airandspace.si.edu/multimedia-gallery/tower-scrapbook-nam-38602-d-negjpg
Credit National Air and Space Museum Archives.
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