Anna (Roosevelt) Cowles (1855 - abt. 1931)

Born 18 Jan 1855 in New York, New York, United States

Ancestors

Wife of William Sheffield Cowles — married Nov 1895 in London, England

Descendants

Died about 25 Aug 1931 at about age 76 in Farmington, Hartford, Connecticut, United States

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Biography

Anna was born 18 January 1855.^[1], the daughter of Theodore Roosevelt and Martha Bulloch. She died on the night of 25 August 1931, aged 76. ^[1]

Anna Roosevelt Cowles (18 January 1855 – 25 August 1931) was an American socialite. She was the older sister of United States President Theodore Roosevelt and an aunt of Eleanor Roosevelt. Her childhood nickname was Bamie /ˈbæmi/, a derivative of bambina (Italian for "baby girl"), but as an adult, her family began calling her Bye because of her tremendous on-the-go energy ("Hi, Bamie! Bye, Bamie!").

Bye suffered from an unexplained deformity of the spine which was painfully curved and produced a slight hump. At age fifteen, she briefly studied at Les Ruches, a private girls’ school in France headed by Marie Souvestre (who would later teach Bye’s nieces Eleanor and Corinne Roosevelt). Bye made her debut in Philadelphia in 1873. Unmarried through her twenties, Bye minded her younger relatives, including Theodore, whose apartment she set up when he left for Harvard College in 1876. Brother and sister enjoyed a close relationship, and Bye was fond of the woman he married in 1882, Alice Hathaway Lee.^[2]

Sister of Theodore Roosevelt helped raise his first child, Alice Lee Roosevelt after her mother's death in 1884.

In 1895 at age 40, Anna Roosevelt married US Navy Lt. Commander (later Rear Admiral) William Sheffield Cowles (1846 – 1923), a divorcé who was 49. They had a son, William Jr. (1898 – 1986), who married Margaret Alwyn Krech (1900 – 1982) in 1920.

Bye was beset by an increasing deafness, devastating arthritis, the failure of her eyesight, and continued backaches. She died at Oldgate, on 25 August 1931. She is buried at Riverside Cemetery , Farmington, Hartford County, Connecticut, USA.^[3]

Sources

1. ↑ ^{1.0 1.1} Wikipedia: Anna Roosevelt Cowles
2. ↑ Theodore Roosevelt Center Anna Roosevelt Cowles
3. ↑ FindAGrave: Anna Roosevelt Cowles: Memorial ID: 17849590Created by: Laurie. Record added: Feb 07, 2007. Last accessed Aug 4, 2017.

See also:

• Cowles, Anna Roosevelt (1855–1931)." Dictionary of Women Worldwide: 25,000 Women Through the Ages. . Encyclopedia.com. 4 Aug. 2017 <http://www.encyclopedia.com>.