He served in the Pacific during World War II. He was commissioned in the Naval Reserve on August 19, 1940 and was promoted to lieutenant on March 1, 1943.[2] Later in the war, he served as captain of the USS Greene, (APD-36).[3] With the Greene he supported the invasion of southern France in August 1944 and later served on escort duties in the Pacific.
On December 22, 1943, while a lieutenant in the Navy, Roosevelt married first Nancy Thayer in New York City. At the time, she believed her father was the poet Scofield Thayer, however, she was actually a daughter of poet E.E. Cummings. Before their divorce in 1954, they were the parents of two children:[4]
Simon Willard Roosevelt (1945–1965), a student at Columbia University who died in a motorcycle accident at age 19;[5] he married Ann Whitney Alexander in Pittsfield, Massachusetts in January 1964. After his death, she became the editor of BMD Monitor.[6]
Elizabeth Françoise Roosevelt (b. 1947), who married Derek C. Aldred in January 1966 in Hammersmith, England.
After his divorce, Roosevelt was married on May 28, 1955 in Mendon, Vermont to Carol Adele Russell (1935–2022), a daughter of Eleanor Lavinia Rassmussen and Joseph John Russell.[7] They had three children:
Three Songs from Poe for soprano, clarinet and piano (1977); words by Edgar Allan Poe
Two Songs for voice and piano (1967); words by E. E. Cummings
Two Songs for voice and piano (1973); words by Lloyd Frankenberg
War Is Kind (Our Dead Brother Bid Us Think of Life) for soprano, narrator, dancer and chamber orchestra (1976); words by Stephen Crane and Oliver Wendell Holmes Jr.
Referencesedit
^ abcd"Paid Notice: Deaths ROOSEVELT, J. WILLARD". The New York Times. September 21, 2008. Retrieved 1 March 2024.
^United States Bureau of Naval Personnel (1949). Register of Commissioned and Warrant Officers of the United States Naval Reserve. U.S. Government Printing Office. p. 867. Retrieved June 7, 2022.
^"Paid Death Notices; J. Willard Roosevelt". The New York Times. September 21, 2008. Retrieved June 7, 2022.
^Times, Special to The New York (7 April 1954). "RENO DECREE GRANTED; Wife of J. W. Roosevelt Wins Divorce, Settlement". The New York Times. Retrieved 1 March 2024.
^"Great-Grandson of T.R. Dies After Collision Here". The New York Times. 2 May 1965. Retrieved 1 March 2024.
^ ab"WEDDINGS; Lolita Echavarria, Simon Roosevelt". The New York Times. 28 February 1999. Retrieved 1 March 2024.
^ ab"Carol Russell Roosevelt". The Suffolk Times. 11 September 2023. Retrieved 1 March 2024.
^"Roosevelt, Dirck (dr2692) | Teachers College, Columbia University". www.tc.columbia.edu. Teachers College, Columbia University. Retrieved 1 March 2024.
^"Caleb Roosevelt, the 19-year-old great-grandson of President Theodore Roosevelt,... - UPI Archives". UPI. July 16, 1982. Retrieved 1 March 2024.
^"TR Center - News and Notes..." Theodore Roosevelt Association Journal. 12 (3). 1986. Retrieved 1 March 2024.
External linksedit
Williard Roosevelt at the American Composers Alliance