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- The Seattle Times - 4/6/1996
Patricia Peabody Roosevelt, Seattle-born society cyclone who died Tuesday of heart failure at age 74, could really make things happen.
She could pick up the phone and summon Bob Hope to a March of Dimes fund-raiser or Joe Namath to her daughter's graduation.
Enjoy a bridge game with the master, Charles Goren.
Or have a chat with Hillary Rodham Clinton.
After all, since 1960 when she remarried, she had only to say, "This is Mrs. Elliott Roosevelt calling . . ."
Mrs. Roosevelt was a lover of the limelight even before she became the daughter-in-law of first lady Eleanor Roosevelt and President Franklin D. Roosevelt.
"She was quite an Auntie Mame," said her sister Lee Evoy of Medina. "She had energy that wouldn't stop and was a rebel all her life. In fact, she was held back a grade at Forest Ridge for her antics."
In spite of the trouble she gave the Seattle Catholic school's nuns, Mrs. Roosevelt graduated in 1940. When her father insisted his girls partake in the war effort, she became a messenger at Boeing.
"If you could have seen her zipping around on a motor scooter!" said her sister. "It suited her."
Mrs. Roosevelt married Milton Whitehead in 1941. When he was sent overseas, she worked in an exclusive, Seattle dress shop. Later, she and a friend published the Seattle Blue Book - a social register that "stepped on quite a few toes," according to her sister.
An accomplished horsewoman, Mrs. Roosevelt also flouted convention - and the law - by driving a pony cart down Fifth Avenue to publicize her Children's Orthopedic Hospital Benefit Horse Show.
After her first marriage ended, she entered the real-estate business and moved to Phoenix, where she married Roosevelt. They enjoyed the social whirl of Portugal, England and Miami Beach before settling in Bellevue from 1977 to 1983.
She later moved to Scottsdale, Ariz., where she died.
"She was just very, very artistic and could sew and decorate, and do all those things my sister and I could never do," said her sister Nina O'Neil of Everett. "She was never afraid to speak her mind."
Gretchen Roosevelt of Seattle said her mother taught her and her brothers to stand up and state their case:
"But I don't think any of her children were as gutsy as she was. She had a real `can-do' attitude."
Other survivors include her sons David Roosevelt, of Seattle, Ford Roosevelt, Van Nuys, Calif., and James Roosevelt, Hollywood, Fla.; seven grandchildren; three great-grandchildren; four stepchildren; 13 step-grandchildren; and eight step-great-grandchildren. Her husband, Elliott, died in 1990.
Memorial Mass will be said at 2 p.m. Wednesday in St. Bridget Church, 4900 N.E. 50th St., Seattle
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1921 - 1996 (74 years)