The Theodore Roosevelt Association annual meeting was held this year locally. With members staying at the Glen Cove Mansion (formerly known as Harrison House) and events Friday, Saturday, Sunday and Monday, Oct. 24, 25, 26 and 27, spilling into Oyster Bay, it was a great opportunity to meet some of the members of the organization dedicated to promoting the legacy of TR.

TRA members were invited to lunch at the Matinecock Lodge, where TR was a brother. It was a great time to interview some of the conventioneers. The convention was titled: "To Know the Man, Know the Place" a quote TRA President Jim Bruns credited to President Harry Truman. Therefore - to know the TRA, know the members.

TRA executive board member Tweed Roosevelt, a great grandson of TR said of the annual meeting, on Saturday morning, "It's just going great. We had all our business meetings on Friday and sailed last night on a boat ride. There was a symposium Saturday morning and there were three presentations on the Roosevelts and the land."

Tweed was also at Sagamore Hill National Historic Site on Sunday for the Family Day celebration of TR's 150th Birthday and at the gravesite at Youngs Cemetery on Monday, Oct. 27.

TR's larger than life persona makes him ideal for enactors. There were three TR impersonators at the TRA luncheon at the Matinecock Lodge: Jim Foote of Sea Cliff who is well-known locally and was reported in Newsday, as the Roosevelt's favorite TR enactor; Tom Jackson and Joe Wiegand.

Mr. Jackson was sporting at Rough Rider neckerchief, blue with white polka dots. He has been impersonating TR for 10 years. He said he is an expert on San Antonio; the Texas Revolution and Trail Directors. "My ancestors were Trail Directors. I also do a cowboy show," he said.

Mr. Wiegand said he has been impersonating TR since 1986. He travels the country doing programs about Mr. Roosevelt. On Saturday, Oct. 18, Mr. Wiegand shared stories about Roosevelt's adventures at a birthday celebration on Roosevelt Island in Washington, D.C. On Monday evening, Oct. 27 he appeared at the White House as President George W. Bush hosted a 150th Anniversary TR event.

Mr. Foote appeared at the TR Birthplace in NYC at several of their 150th Anniversary events for TR, at the convention including on Sunday, Oct. 26 when he met visitors to Sagamore Hill, shaking hands, talking to visitors and having his photograph taken with them. He, too, travels the country representing TR and quoting the president.

Seated on the Matinecock Lodge porch, waiting for his wife, was Ed Kuzan of Hamburg, NY, located outside of Buffalo. His wife, Janice Kuzan, is the assistant director of the TR Inaugural Site in Buffalo. He said, the site is undergoing a major restoration and raised $2 million to restore the carriage house located on the original footprint. They are spending $1 million to improve their educational programs. They are very interactive and the project has been going on for about 18 months, said Mr. Kuzan.

Seated in the Matinecock Lodge downstairs dining room was Matt Glover of Chicago who said the term Ted Heads was "broken" in the Chicago Tribune when Perry Sartori said in an article, 'I was unaware there were Ted Heads in Chicago."

Mr. Glover works in human resources and said he is interested in the legacy TR left here. "He truly identified the role of the presidency in his time for the country and he did as much as a president as he did as a private citizen." On a personal TR note, he said of his own childhood, living outside of Chicago, "The urban folklore was that he stayed at the Florence Hotel, as my mother would say every time we passed by it, and who would not believe their mother."

Mr. Glover has been a freelance writer for corporations for the last three years. He has been a TRA member since 1982. The reason for his interest in TR is that he is a great example for the country. "Ever since his boyhood, he suffered from asthma and yet he became the epitome of the robust American. We all say - I can't do this - but despite having something really bad he stepped up to the plate, a great example for all of us," he said.

Mr. Glover said he knew the late Dr. John Gable [TRA executive director] and related a Roosevelt story concerning him. "In 1988 Francis Roosevelt asked John Gable who he was going to vote for and he said McGovern, and she wacked him on the arm. She was an ardent Republican."

One of the men at the table said they had another firsthand story about Dr. Anna Roosevelt, one of the three daughters of Francis Webb Roosevelt and Quentin Roosevelt [who died in an airplane crash near Hong Kong, Dec. 21, 1948]. He said when their grandmother was writing her memoirs, Mrs. TR Jr., Eleanor Butler Alexander Roosevelt worked in her room for a couple of hours a day and she allowed them to read what she was writing. "They felt very privileged to see the pages," he said.

Peter Scanlon of Guilderland, a town outside of Albany, is an antiques dealer of political and historic Americana - buttons, books and literature with a concentration on the American political campaigns; and with a special interest in TR. To find his memorabilia, he said he attends a lot of auctions and has a large stable of book collectors he is in touch with; does a lot of appraisals and attends conventions and shows - like a coin collector does.

Mr. Scanlon said he had a piece of Quentin Roosevelt memorabilia. "I have a 'letter' from Quentin. It is a paper he wrote and his professor kept it. I found it. I also have shelves of books on TR Jr. and one letter from Kermit." He suggested people read All in the Family, TR Jr.'s memoir of his childhood at Sagamore Hill.

Garry R. Austin of Wilmington, Vermont, added to the conversation saying Flora Whitney's (Quentin's fiancée) correspondence was given to the National Archives. "They are very intimate letters to Quentin Roosevelt," he said. As for cars, he said, in the 1920s, there was a Roosevelt automobile - one with his name on the radiator cap - it was called the Marmon (the name of the company that built the car).

Mr. Austin is a rare book dealer. He has a store but travels a lot. "I specialize in TR, his family and circle and have prints, books and autographs," he said.

Sitting nearby was retired elementary school teacher Jean Sheila Sanders of Buffalo who is a volunteer at the TR Inaugural site in that city. "One of the strong points of the site, is its 37-year volunteer program. There are 200 volunteers. That's the reason the museum has prospered," she said. They held a major TR symposium on TR in 2002 when the annual meeting was held in Buffalo.

Ms. Sanders said, "We're delighted to be in Oyster Bay. The last time I saw Sagamore Hill was 20 years ago. I know they were trying to show that it was a middle income estate - not a wealthy estate, according to the talk given by Dr. Natalie Naylor, (professor emeritus of Hofstra University)."

Garry Austin added to that saying, "TR spent $18,000 to build the house (Sagamore Hill) - that would be a lot in today's money." Mr. Austin said, "I've never seen Sagamore Hill but I can tell you where things are in the house. Since it was their primary house. It was much more in character. I can't wait to see the bullet hole in the upstairs ceiling. I can see TR saying to Kermit [who had been given the gun as a present] and wanted to shoot it off. TR allowed him to shoot it off inside the house and said, 'Don't tell your mother!'"

Ada and Franklin Flower, former CEO of Frank M. Flower & Sons, Inc. shellfishers, attended the TRA annual meeting and brought along their grandson Thomas Valentine, a student interested in history.

The family of the late TRA Executive Director Dr. John Gable, attended the TRA executive director: Mary Jane Gable, his mother and his brother Pat Gable, Esq.

Mr. Gable said his mother bought John a Landmark Series book on TR when he was 9 years old and it started his interest in the president. He signed up with the TRA that year. When Mr. Gable went to clear out his brother's office, after his death, he said, "There it was (the book). He kept it all those years with him."

Also at the convention was Linda Milano, former TRA assistant director under Dr. Gable. Ms. Milano worked for the TRA from January 1998 to April 2005. Before that, she was a volunteer tour guide at the Museum of Natural History (MNH). When she started volunteering at Sagamore Hill she was put on the Volunteer Advisory Board and founded the volunteer newsletter. "I was used to the quality of information at the MNH and so I started to put information for the guides at Sagamore Hill into computer programs for easy access and got involved with the Friends of Sagamore Hill. At one meeting John Gable said his assistant Mike Manson was retiring and he needed someone to take his place. My job at CitiBank had been downsized and I interviewed and got the job.

"I had the public speaking experience and was well-versed in TR and had office skills and TR skills and putting everything together - it worked. And I did love the job," she said. Ms. Milano is knowledgeable about TR and has many insights to his story.

TRA member Herb Hart of Washington D.C. said his favorite association with TR is his Spanish American War record. He read TR's book, The Rough Riders and enjoyed it. Mr. Hart retired from the Marine Corps in 1980. He was the director of public affairs, dealing with the press. He said, recognizing this writer's reporter's notebook, "Yesterday (Saturday, Oct. 25) was a smashing success."

Another Ted Head couple attending were Bill Billingsley of Roswell, Georgia, and his wife Pam Billingsley who is the site coordinator of Bulloch Hall, where TR's mother grew up and where she married TR's father at age 18. Mr. Billingsley is retired from being a Navy pilot and an airline pilot.

Gathered around the showmobile at the end of the parade were TRA Executive Board members and their wives: The USS TR's first executive officer Steve Abbott and his wife Marjorie with Prissy and Witt Parcells, the First Captain of the USS TR. The men are on the TRA executive board.

Also present were Robert Dalziel, past president of the TRA; and Mary Lou Dalziel his wife, as well as Linda Parsons wife of Norman Parsons, TRA member.

Riding in the TRA Parade in a wooden wagon, driven by a Rough Rider, was TRA Teddy Bear Program Chair James Pehta and his wife Marjorie. He said, "Our little Teddy Bear program is going so nicely. [He said the story about the expansion of the program to give Teddy Bears to children in hospitals nationally that appeared in the Enterprise Pilot is included in their website.] We include hospitals all over the United States. We give the thousands, after thousands of bears to the children. We have a website: teddysbearsforkids.org. You will see your story there," he said. "We are hosting a huge Teddy Bear gala at the TR Birthplace on Dec. 5: the same as a year ago [held at the Milleridge Inn], to raise money. Next October the TRA will be in Tampa, Florida. There, they will have the Tampa contingent of Rough Rider re-enactors."

The Oyster Bay Historical Society hosted an art exhibit of work by Roosevelts. The art works at the offices of the TRA on Audrey Avenue featured living Roosevelts. After the TRA Parade, people stopped by the TRA offices to see the exhibit. Both parts of the exhibit were curatored by Yvonne Noonan-Cifarelli who was selling the photographs and artwork; as well as T-shirts designed by Michael Roosevelt of nautical flags that read R-O-O, S-E-V, E-L-T in three vertical columns.

At the Oyster Bay Historical Society headquarters at the Earle-Wightman House at 20 Summit Street was TRA member Barbara Kraft Comstock, daughter of Jessica Kraft, the first curator of Sagamore Hill, with her daughter Pamela Kraft Swanson. Mrs. Kraft was bringing copies of Stephen Walker's book called, What Kind of a Noise, Annoys an Oyster? and with the answer given on the cover - "An Oyster Songster." It is sold to benefit the Oyster Bay Historical Society and Ms. Comstock was bringing the copies to the conventioneers at their Saturday night cocktail party.

Her daughter, who spent much of her childhood years at Sagamore Hill attended the reception and bought three books on TR at the event.

Franklin Hill Perrell, chief curator of the Nassau County Museum of Art and his wife Emily Franchina, Esq. visited the exhibit of dead Roosevelts. He had worked on an exhibit of TR and Art with the late Dr. John Gable. Mr. Perrell gave a lecture on TR and the arts during the reign of Oyster Bay's favorite citizen - President Theodore Roosevelt - on Nov. 16. It included a sale of items by the living Roosevelt artists.

Mr. Perrell said, "There is no limit to the topics that can be embraced by TR since he had an encyclopedic repository of interests."

Which is a good way to end a discussion on the Ted Heads showing that they too find TR an icon to latch onto in many individual ways.