A Look Back, June 28, 1979 - A Very Rare Roosevelt Reunion

A Look Back, June 28, 1979 - A Very Rare Roosevelt Reunion

A relaxed family gathering of the Roosevelt clan was held Sunday at the former family summer cottage which is now the focal point of the Roosevelt-Campobello International Park on Campobello Island, New Brunswick, Canada. Shown above in the back row are the four sons of the late U.S. President Franklin Delano Roosevelt, left to right, John, Franklin D. Jr., Eliot and James. In the front row are their wives, Irene, Pat, Patty and Mary. The little boy is the son of FDR Jr. and Pat and his name is John, while the little girl at right is eight-year-old Becky, daughter of James and Mary Roosevelt. The group arrived mid-week and the four brothers, at the urging of the Roosevelt-Campobello park commission, spent several hours recording their memories while summering on the island with their parents, Franklin and Eleanor. The last time all four of the brothers had been together on Campobello was back in 1936. The family group gathered on the lawn before the 36-room cottage while television news crews and reporters from St. John, N.B., Calais, Eastport, Bangor and Portland photographed and interviewed the mean who themselves travelled from New York, Seattle, Washington and California for this reunion. In answer to a question, Franklin, Jr., who was born in the summer cottage and who is a member of the Roosevelt-Camppbello International Park Commission (there are three members from each government), said that the Commission is “very, very concerned” about the effect that the sulphur emissions from the proposed Eastport refinery have on the environment of nearby Maine and New Brunswick. He said that he and his colleagues were also concerned abut the navigational problems which large oil tankers might encounter in the narrow passage leading to Eastport from the open sea. James wondered what positive effect the Passamaquoddy Tidal Power Project might have had on the local economy had it been built as his father had wanted. In answer to another inquiry, FDR, Jr., said that each of the four brothers believe in public service. Since the 1600s, when the family first came to America, there has always been a Roosevelt in public service and he expected that it would remain so.

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