Elliott Roosevelt - Later Life

Later Life

After FDR's death in 1945, Roosevelt and his family moved to Top Cottage to be near his mother, who considered Roosevelt her favorite child. She gave him financial assistance throughout her life. In 1947 she bought from the FDR estate Val-Kill farms, the home she lived in after FDR's death, and deeded the property to Roosevelt. After Elliott moved to Miami Beach and Habana with his fourth wife, in 1952, Roosevelt's brother John bought the Hyde Park tract. Later, the property became Eleanor Roosevelt National Historic Site.

Roosevelt pursued many different careers during his life, including owning a pre-war radio station network (Texas State Network) in Texas and living as a rancher. After brief ventures in Cuba and Colorado, he was involved (not criminally) with a bank embezzlement scandal in Sheldon, Iowa (1960). He again moved to Florida and was elected mayor of Miami Beach, Florida (1965), being unseated two stormy years later. After a business career marked by ties to organized crime, he was investigated by the Senate ("Jackson Committee") in 1973. He emigrated to Portugal in 1972, but left for England after the revolution in 1975. He moved back to the United States, living in Bellevue, WA, Indian Wells, CA, and finally Scottsdale, AZ. As Roosevelt approached his eightieth year, his final ambition was to "outlive James." However, Roosevelt died at age 80 of congestive heart failure. His brother James Roosevelt survived Roosevelt by one year.