James Tadd Roosevelt (1879-1958)

(James) Tadd Roosevelt Jr.

His father, Rosey, was the elder half-brother U.S. President Franklin D. Roosevelt, so although Franklin was his uncle, they were in fact albeit the same age. He and Franklin grew up together and attended Groton School and Harvard University at the same time, but they were never close. Tadd left Harvard under a veil of scandal which followed him when he moved to New York City and married Sadie Messinger, a Hungarian-born prostitute. His father disowned him, he was cut off from the Roosevelt family, but nonetheless Tadd remained marred to Sadie all his life. He was still entitled to his substantial inheritance from his mother's family (the Astors) but he never once touched it and on his death in 1958 he left the whole lot to the Salvation Army.
Contributed by Mark Meredith on 20/01/2020 and last updated on 20/01/2020.