Actually, Theodore was a fifth cousin of Franklin’s (Teddy’s dad was a cousin of Franklin’s dad). But, yes, Eleanor (first name Anna) was the daughter of Teddy’s brother, Elliot, who died at age 34 (when Eleanor was 10) from alcohol related problems. Teddy walked her down the aisle at her wedding, which was held on St. Patrick’s Day to accommodate the fact that Teddy would be in NY for the St. Patrick’s Day parade.
ETA: I believe they call that ninja’d!
Fair enough, but I seem to recall that Franklin would address Theodore as “Uncle Ted.” Perhaps my memory is faulty.
When I was teaching English as a Foreign Language, I would ask my students to name the youngest American president. They invariably answered “Kennedy.”
JFK was the youngest president ever to be elected, at the age of 43. But TR was the youngest to serve, since he was 42 when McKinley was assassinated.
Many members of Theodore Roosevelt’s family resented Franklin Roosevelt. They felt he was riding on Theodore’s popularity (which was true to a large extent early in Franklin’s career). They felt that Theodore’s political successor should have been his oldest son, Theodore. (He was known as Theodore Roosevelt Jr even though he was actually Theodore Roosevelt III.) But Theodore Junior never had the success in politics of his father or his cousin.
Theodore Junior served in World War I and returned to active duty in 1940. He reached the rank of Brigadier General. He was the only General to land with the troops on the first day of the D-Day invasion and, at 56, he was the oldest man in the landing force. The strain was apparently too much for him; he had a heart attack and died a month later.
Taft was a professor at Yale after his presidency and there was a special double-wide seat at Yale Field (where baseball is played at the school) for him, along with another extra-wide seat at Woolsey Hall. Cite
In between being vice president and president, Richard Nixon was a corporate lawyer for Pepsi Cola.
As such, he used his influence with Leonid Brezhnev to get Pepsi-Cola introduced in the Soviet Union in the early '70s. Back then, you had to know which places carried it and ask for it by name, since it wasn’t on public display. By the late '80s, PepsiCo products (and then other soft drinks as well) were being sold everywhere as part of Mikhail Gorbachev’s anti-alcohol campaign.
Winston Churchill accepted a knighthood, but turned down a peerage. Twice.
When he left office after the war ended, he was offered a peerage. “Duke of London” was one possible title that was discussed. However, he predicted (correctly, as it turned out) that the Labour government would be short-lived, and he wanted to be eligible for another shot at Prime Minister.
After his second government ended, he was again offered a peerage. However, his son Randolph had political ambitions, and inheriting a peerage would have screwed his chances at becoming Prime Minister. So Winston again declined.
As it turned out, without Winston’s coattails, Randolph could not get elected dog-catcher, and would have been better off with an inherited title. But by this time, Winston was dead, and they don’t give posthumous peerages. Winston’s widow was made a baroness, but it was only a life peerage, so Randolph was still out of luck.