36 Facts About Kermit Roosevelt

Kermit Roosevelt fought a lifelong battle with depression and died by suicide while serving in the US Army in Alaska during World War II.

Kermit Roosevelt had an older half-sister Alice Lee Roosevelt, from his father's first marriage to Alice Hathaway Lee, an elder brother, Theodore III, a younger sister, Ethel Carow Roosevelt, and two younger brothers; Archibald Bulloch "Archie" Roosevelt and Quentin Roosevelt.

Kermit Roosevelt had a flair for language and read avidly.

Kermit Roosevelt showed a writing talent that led to recording his experiences in World War I in a book.

Kermit Roosevelt became active in the Boone and Crockett Club, a wildlife conservation organization that had been co-founded by his father.

One commentator wrote that Kermit Roosevelt embodied the ideals of the club perhaps more purely than anyone, including his father.

At the time of the expedition, Kermit Roosevelt was newly engaged to Belle Wyatt Willard, daughter of the US ambassador to Spain.

Kermit Roosevelt told his father that he was bringing him back literally "dead or alive" and if he died, he would be an even bigger burden to the expedition.

From 1914 to 1916, Kermit Roosevelt was assistant manager for National City Bank in Buenos Aires.

Kermit Roosevelt attended the Plattsburg School for officers from May to July 1917 but resigned from the US Army to join the British Army.

Kermit Roosevelt saw hard fighting in the Near East, later transferring to the United States Army.

Kermit Roosevelt was awarded a Military Cross on August 26,1918.

Kermit Roosevelt relinquished his British commission on April 28,1918, and was transferred to the AEF in France.

Kermit Roosevelt was commissioned a captain in the United States Army on May 12,1918, and commanded Battery C, 7th Artillery of the 1st Division.

Kermit Roosevelt participated in the Meuse-Argonne Offensive near the end of the war.

Kermit Roosevelt returned to the United States on March 25,1919, and was discharged from the Army two days later.

Kermit Roosevelt continued to enjoy outdoor activities with his brothers.

In 1925, Kermit Roosevelt accompanied his brother Ted on a hunting expedition across the Himalayas, over uncharted mountain passes rising from the Vale of Kashmir through the ancient Silk Route into China, in search of the legendary bighorn wild sheep called Ovis poli.

The Kermit Roosevelt brothers told the story of their part in the expedition in their book Trailing the Giant Panda.

Kermit Roosevelt served as vice president of the New York Zoological Society from 1937 to 1939.

Kermit Roosevelt's friend, using the pseudonym Edward Graham, a pilot, was White Russian emigre Prince Emanuel Galitzine the son of Prince Vladimir Galitzine.

Kermit Roosevelt served with distinction in a raid into Norway and was later sent to North Africa, where there was little action at the time.

Kermit Roosevelt resumed drinking and was debilitated by an enlarged liver complicated by a resurgence of malaria.

Kermit Roosevelt appealed this discharge all the way to the British Prime Minister, Winston Churchill, who upheld the medical discharge.

Kermit Roosevelt's wife enlisted the help of his cousin, President Franklin Delano Roosevelt, who ordered the FBI to track him down, and he was brought back to his family.

Kermit Roosevelt was a member of Veterans of Foreign Wars Post 1685 in Anchorage, Alaska.

Kermit Roosevelt died in Alaska on June 4,1943, in his room at Fort Richardson, from suicide by a gunshot to the head.

Kermit Roosevelt was discovered by Dr Sanford Couch Monroe, who later filed the autopsy report.

Kermit Roosevelt's death was reported to his mother, Edith, as a heart attack.

Kermit Roosevelt was interred in Fort Richardson National Cemetery near Anchorage, where a memorial stone gateway was erected in his honor in 1949.

The town of Kermit Roosevelt, Texas, was named for him.

Kermit Roosevelt appears as a minor character in the Wilbur Smith novel Assegai on safari in East Africa with his father.

Kermit Roosevelt appears in the second episode of 1992's The Young Indiana Jones Chronicles television series.

Kermit Roosevelt appears fleetingly in William Boyd's novel An Ice-Cream War.

Kermit Roosevelt appears as a main character in the James Ross historical fiction Hunting Teddy Roosevelt about the safari in East Africa with his father.

Kermit Roosevelt appears in the fiction book The President's Daughter by Kimberly Brubaker Bradley which is based on Kermit's sister Ethel Roosevelt Derby and their time in the White House.