Theodore Roosevelt spent his whole life cheating death. Death came to Roosevelt 97 years ago today — but judging by his wild ventures, it should have come a lot sooner.
Topical Press Agency/Getty ImagesThe 26th president of the United States, Theodore Roosevelt survived several brushes with death in his life.
In 1912, President Theodore Roosevelt was shot in the chest by an assassin. Not only did he survive, but he continued onto his speaking engagement as if nothing had happened, and famously boasted that the assassin’s bullet lodged in his chest wasn’t enough “to kill a bull moose.”
That failed assassination stands as the most famous moment that Roosevelt cheated death, but it’s hardly the only time that he grappled with the Grim Reaper. Indeed, death had stalked Roosevelt since childhood.
Theodore Roosevelt’s Sickly Childhood
Smith Collection/Gado/Getty ImagesA portrait of Theodore Roosevelt when he was around 10 years old. 1868.
Though Theodore Roosevelt later developed a reputation for being tough — nay, unstoppable — he spent his childhood plagued by health problems. Born on Oct. 27, 1858, Roosevelt suffered from constant ailments like colds, coughs, and fevers. But the worst of all was his asthma.
“I was a sickly, delicate boy, suffered much from chronic asthma, and frequently had to be taken away on trips to find a place where I could breathe,” Roosevelt recalled in his autobiography. His asthma attacks were so bad that his father often bundled him into the family’s carriage and took him for rides, in hopes that the fresh air would help.
But Roosevelt’s ill health had an unexpected benefit. Bereft of physical strength, the young boy turned to intellectual pursuits. As HISTORY writes, he devoured books, developed a love for nature, and even used his collection of animal specimens to start the “Roosevelt Museum of Natural History.”
Library of CongressTheodore Roosevelt as a young man, circa 1884.
Still, Roosevelt’s father challenged him to develop his brain and his brawn.
“Theodore, you have the mind, but you have not the body, and without the help of the body the mind cannot go as far as it should,” he counseled his son during Roosevelt’s teenage years. “You must make your body.”
Roosevelt wholeheartedly followed his father’s advice. He began a strenuous exercise regiment, helped by the installation of a new gymnasium in his family’s home, and started to grow stronger. But though Theodore Roosevelt had started to strengthen his body, death still lingered nearby.
Shortly before he graduated from Harvard University in 1880, a doctor found that the future president had a dangerously weak heart. He advised Roosevelt to refrain from physical activity, including running up stairs. Roosevelt, however, dismissed the doctor’s dire warnings of early death.
“I am going to do all the things you tell me not to do,” Roosevelt replied. “If I’ve got to live the sort of life you have described, I don’t care how short it is.”
As history knows, Theodore Roosevelt stayed true to his word. Despite the danger of a weak heart hanging over him, the future president would charge forward into life — and beat death again and again.
