Theodore Roosevelt, Jr. to his wife, Bunny
    The letter extracted here, written in 1943 by Brig. Gen. Theodore Roosevelt, Jr., to his wife Eleanor (nicknamed Bunny) is a fine example of a love letter written in time of war. In it, Roosevelt--who commanded American troops during the Tunisian campaign and was son of former U.S. President Theodore Roosevelt--conjured up a vivid verbal snapshot of their wedding, and gave a touching survey of the path their lives had taken. It is just on of the hundreds of thousands of letters to and from the armed forces in which love shines through as the greatest human consolation.
    Theodore and Eleanor first met on a railroad platform in New Haven, Connecticut, in October 1908. He was 21; she just 19. Both were on their way to the same house party. In her memoirs, Day Before Yesterday, Bunny recalled:

"I was not eager to meet the President's eldest son, whose name seemed always in the papers, as I thought he would be conceited and bumptious."
As the eldest son of a U.S. president, young Roosevelt struggled to escape the shadow of his famous father. As Bunny wrote in her memoirs:

"He was always accused of imitating his father in speech, walk and smile."
However, they found themselves seated next to each other at dinner. Bunny recalled how she was,

"surprised and charmed to find him so agreeable."
He was a good listener, too, since she continued,

"even at that age he was keenly interested in people and in different points of view and had a remarkable faculty of making one feel at one's best."
Two years later, on June 20, 1910, they were married in New York. At the church 500 seats in the gallery were reserved for the Rough Riders--members of a cavalry regiment that Teddy senior had let into battle in Cuba during the Spanish-American War of 1898. (Ted junior referred to them in his letter extracted here.) After the event, the newlyweds tried to avoid publicity, evading newsman temporarily by registering at hotels under assumed names.
    Bunny received valuable advice about marriage from a friend. In her memoirs she recounted some precepts she picked up, such as,

"Don't be a yes-woman. Tell Ted frankly when you agree or disapprove...Never take him for granted. If you don't listen with sympathy and warmth whenever he tells you anything about himself, remember there are plenty of other women who will.
Ted was a businessman for many years. Yet in his letter of July 1921, he wrote,

"I have decided to give you all my money. You have handled all our money affairs as far as spending is concerned ever since we were married. If I died, or if there was another war and I was lost, it would make it much simpler for you to have it all.
This was a trust unusual in their day, and of necessity, it extended to the upbringing of their children.
    Bunny was not just a comfort to Ted when he was away. She also had an adventurous spirit. In the 1920's they went to Central Asia together. At the guarded Afghan frontier, they found a sign which forbade them to cross over. Bunny recalled saying to her husband,

"Someday let's come back and go all the way in."
He replied jokingly,

"I'm taking no chances with you. We might do it when you're old and ugly."
    Ted and Bunny loved each other deeply, with a constancy born of maturity. Having survived the horrors of World War I, they were separated again for long periods during World War II. In 1942 Ted went first to England and then to North africa in command of American troops. Eleanor, meanwhile worked for the American Red Cross in England. Ted wrote often. In 1944 he wrote to her from England after attending their son Quentin's wedding,

"Thank God I was here at this time, but I miss you something awful."
He did not have long to live. On June 5, 1944, the night before the Normandy D-Day landings, he wrote,

"We've had a grand life and I hope there'll be more...in our years together we've packed in enough for ten ordinary lives...We have been very happy. I pray we may be together again.
The last letter to Bunny was dated July 10, 1944. It told of the day's events, and included the simple but poignant statement,

"I'm glad you've liked my letters."
Two days later he died of a heart attack, at age 56. A focus of public interest for most of their lives, Theodore and Eleanor had maintained a marriage of remarkable stability and closeness for 34 years. In his marriage to Bunny, Ted had found a sympathetic, loving soulmate who was able to share not only the good times but the hard times as well, and who understood his personal struggle to be judged on his own achievements--not those o his father. Theirs was a relationship of rare understanding.





Text from
Famous Love Letters
Messages of Intimacy and Passion
Edited by Ronald Tamplin