Roethke's Family
For Roethke, family forms a significant part of poetry. His much celebrated poem, My Papa's Waltz, speaks for his admiration as well as awe for his father, Otto. Ott's untimely death deeply affected young Ted.
Ted was close to his sister June, who was five years younger than him. Later, June typed the drafts of his poems on the dining room table after dinner, for he never learned to type. When Ted was in and out of hospitals for bouts with bi polar, Helen, his mother, and June took care of him. June was a school teacher in Saginaw; she lived in the family house all her life and passed away in 1997.
Ted met Beatrice rather late in life, but their lasting relationship had a positive impact on his life and poetic career. She is in her nineties now and lives in senior care in Hastings, England.