Administrative Information

Access Restrictions

There are no restrictions.

Use Restrictions

There are no restrictions.

Preferred Citation

Virginia Minor Roosevelt Jones Papers, 1917-1935. Accession 45319. Personal papers collection, The Library of Virginia, Richmond, Virginia.

Acquisition Information

Gift of Tucker Carney, Norfolk, Virginia, 6 November 2010.

Biographical Information

According the 1900 federal census, Virginia Lee Minor was born in Washington, D.C., in April 1897, the daughter of George and Genevieve Minor (who married Tucker K. Sands after George Minor's death). Virginia married Robert B. Roosevelt, Jr. (1899-1922), the son of Robert B. Roosevelt (1866-1929) and Lilie Hamersley Roosevelt (b. 1882), on 13 October 1920 in New York City. In the midst of marital problems, the couple was living apart when Robert died on 1 April 1922. Under somewhat mysterious circumstances, he had fallen into the street on a rainy night in New York City and was struck by two vehicles. Virginia Roosevelt was left to raise the couple's infant son, Robert B. Roosevelt III (ca. 1922-1944). She married Arthur Percy Jones (1883-1942) in November 1923. The pair resided in Norfolk, Virginia, with her son and Jones's daughter, Helen. Robert B. Roosevelt III, an ensign in the U.S. Navy during World War II, was presumed killed in the Japanese sinking of the USS Harder on 24 August 1944 off of Luzon Island in the Philippines.

Scope and Content

Papers, 1917-1935, of Virginia Minor Roosevelt Jones (b. 1897) of Washington, D.C., and Norfolk, Virginia. The majority of materials collected here reflect her relationship with first husband Robert B. Roosevelt, Jr. (1899-1922), and chiefly include his letters to her over the period of their long-distance courtship, 1919 (they married in 1920), and during a period of separation in 1922. Roosevelt's letters to Virginia allude to his drinking problem and financial instability, and issues of trust in the marriage. Other materials in the collection include letters from Robert's mother, Lilie Hamersley Roosevelt (b. 1883), to Virginia in the wake of his sudden death in 1922; numerous sympathy cards and letters; a letter from Arthur Percy Jones (1883-1942) shortly before he became Virginia's second husband in 1923; and correspondence and greeting cards, 1922-1923 and 1933, directed to Robert Roosevelt III (ca. 1922-1944). Also included are a small notebook used as a scrapbook, 1919-1920, holding various postcards and clippings sent to Virginia by Robert, along with some handwritten musings by both; and a photo album, 1916 and undated.