Lt. Quentin Roosevelt, 20, was shot down behind enemy lines on July 14, 1918, during a dogfight with German pilots. As all of Theodore Roosevelt's biographers note, Quentin's death devastated his father. "Poor Quinnikens," Roosevelt would mutter to himself, lost in reverie.

At least he was spared the further pain suffered by his widow, Edith, who would live on until 1948 and lose two more sons during World War II. Maj. Kermit Roosevelt killed himself in 1943 while serving in Alaska. Brig. Gen. Theodore Roosevelt Jr. died of a heart attack in Normandy in July 1944, a month after he had landed on Utah Beach with the first wave. (He was posthumously awarded the Congressional Medal of Honor for his D-Day exploits.)

The fourth Roosevelt son, Archie, was severely wounded in both world wars but survived to a very cranky old age.