Kermit Roosevelt - Death

Death

In Alaska, Roosevelt committed suicide on June 4, 1943, by a self-inflicted gunshot. He was discovered in his house with a gunshot wound in the head by Dr. Sanford Couch Monroe who later filed the autopsy report. His death was reported to his mother Edith, whose favorite son he had been, as a heart attack. Given the sensitive nature of his death, for many years the cause of death continued to be described as heart disease. Only in later years did the true circumstances of his death become known. He was interred in Fort Richardson National Cemetery near Anchorage, where a memorial stone gateway was erected in his honor in 1949.

He was survived by his wife Belle and four children: Kermit "Kim" Roosevelt, Jr., Joseph Willard Roosevelt, Belle Wyatt Roosevelt, and Dirck Roosevelt.

The town of Kermit, Texas, was named for him (he had visited Winkler County, Texas, a few months earlier to hunt antelope). The town of Kermit, West Virginia, is also named after him. Finally, the Luzon-class repair ship USS Kermit Roosevelt (ARG-16) was named in his honor.