Early Life
Anna was born in a brownstone home at 28 East 20th Street in New York City on January 18, 1855. Her parents were Martha and Theodore Roosevelt. Her other siblings were Elliott Roosevelt and Corinne Roosevelt. Anna was afflicted by a spinal ailment that led to her being partially crippled and confined by corrective steel braces as a child.
TR's daughter, Alice Roosevelt Longworth, once remarked that had Bamie, with her incredible intelligence and energy, been born a 19th Century man, without the social restrictions that the era placed on women, she would have been president instead of her brother. Bamie's niece, Eleanor Roosevelt, stated in her autobiography that Bamie had "an able man's mind." Although she was not a stunningly gorgeous woman like her mother, Mittie or her sisters-in-law, her natural intelligence and energy was magnetic to both men and women. She remained an emotional pillar of strength for all the Roosevelts.
Read more about this topic: Bamie Roosevelt
Famous quotes related to early life:
“Many a woman shudders ... at the terrible eclipse of those intellectual powers which in early life seemed prophetic of usefulness and happiness, hence the army of martyrs among our married and unmarried women who, not having cultivated a taste for science, art or literature, form a corps of nervous patients who make fortunes for agreeable physicians ...”
—Sarah M. Grimke (1792–1873)