ROOSEVELT THEODORE Autograph Letter Signed to nine year old

Sale 2674 - Lot 132

Unsold

Estimate: $ 2,500 - $ 3,500

REPLY TO CONDOLENCES FROM A 9-YEAR-OLD GIRL FOR DEATH OF HIS SON ROOSEVELT, THEODORE. Autograph Letter Signed, to nine-year-old Betty Transeau ("Dear little Miss Betty"), responding to her invitation to dinner and condolences for the death of his son in the war. 1 page, 8vo, with integral blank; faint scattered soiling, horizontal fold. With the original envelope, addressed in his hand. Columbus, OH [from postmark], 30 September 1918

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"That's a dear little note of yours. I am very sorry about your gallant cousin Dick, and I hope all your other kinsfolk who are at the front, fighting bravely, will come home to you safely."
Roosevelt visited Columbus in 1918 for the dedication of the Franklin County War Memorial, just three months after the death of his son Quentin at the front. Elizabeth "Betty" Transeau (1908-1991) was a nine-year-old daughter of an Ohio State botany professor at the time, and she thought to invite the former president to dinner: "I am so sorry about your son. I have two ungels [sic] in the war and my cousin Dick was killed at Cateau Thierry. . . . I wish you would come to our house [for] dinner and we would have all the children in the neighborhood like a big birthday party. . . ."
With--Transcription of Transeau's letter, likely in the hand of one of Transeau's siblings or parents, in pencil. 1 page, 4to, "Department of Botany" stationery. Columbus, 30 September 1918.