History will come to life in salutes to citizenship when Joe Wiegand returns to Illinois as Teddy Roosevelt. During the performance from 2 p.m. to 4 p.m., Saturday, April 14, at the Santori Public Library of Aurora, 101 South River Street in Aurora, Wiegand will salute the Roosevelt-Aurora American Legion Post 84. The Post was organized in 1919 and named in honor of 21-year-old Lt. Quentin Roosevelt, who gave his life in battle over France July 14, 1918, as a member of the 95th Aero Squadron, United States Army Air Corps.
This performance is free and open to the public.
A second performance April 14 by the Rough Rider president will follow at the Paramount Theatre for the Performing Arts, 23 East Galena Boulevard in Aurora, with a reception at 5:30 p.m. and a performance from 6:45 p.m. to 7:45 p.m.. The evening performance is free and open to the public and will feature a free will offering to benefit the programs of the Roosevelt-Aurora American Legion Post 84.
“Bringing history to life is very important to achieving one of the pillars of our core purpose, which is to preserve the memories and incidents of our associations in the Great Wars,” said Mike Eckburg, American Legion Post Commander. “The performance by Joe Wiegand is remarkable, and I encourage everyone, young and adult, to come and listen to some of our great country’s history.”
Wiegand, a former county commissioner in Northern Illinois’ DeKalb County, has been touring the country for a decade and performing as Theodore Roosevelt in theaters, parks, and schools, on television, and in film. In 1982, as a student at Palatine High School in Northwest Suburban Cook County, a young Wiegand was elected governor of the Premier Boys State, a program of the Youth and Americanism Committee of the American Legion. Wiegand went on to Washington, D.C., where his peers elected him the president of the American Legion Boys Nation. Scholarships from Boys Nation sent Wiegand on to college at the University of the South, in Sewanee, Tenn..
“Our Nation owes a great debt to the men and the women of the American Legion and the American Legion Auxiliary who have served veterans and their families while they and their families have served the Nation. I owe a great personal debt of gratitude to the American Legion. The chance to bring a great, patriotic American to life for the benefit and entertainment of the American Legion and their guests is an honor and a real pleasure,” said Wiegand.
Wiegand has been featured in “The Men Who Built America” on the History Channel and was featured in the I-MAX film “National Parks Adventure.” His work has been seen on C-SPAN, and Wiegand was featured at the White House on the occasion of Theodore Roosevelt’s 150th birthday in 2008. Based in Medora, N.D., gateway to Theodore Roosevelt National Park, Wiegand tours all 50 states and internationally and is regarded as the Nation’s premiere reprisor of Theodore Roosevelt.
Lt. Quentin Roosevelt was killed in aerial combat July 14, Bastille Day, 1918, over the Second Battle of the Marne. His gravesite became a point of pilgrimage for allied soldiers headed to the front. When founded in 1919, Post 84 Roosevelt-Aurora American Legion was named in honor of the president’s fallen son. When American officers met in Paris, France in March 1919, it was what would become known as the impetus for founding the American Legion, an organization of veterans for the support of one another and for the widows and orphans of their fallen comrades. July 14, 2018, Wiegand and a young colleague, Austin Artz, who portrays Lt. Quentin Roosevelt, will be in France, where the same local village where Quentin was originally buried will change the name of its primary school to honor Quentin Roosevelt.
For more information, visit www.teddyroosveltshow.com.
— Roosevelt-Aurora American Legion Post 84
