This paper presents a modeling method for the vibration analysis of rotating cantilever beams considering the elastic foundation effect. Mass and stiffness matrices are derided explicitly by considering coupling effect between stretching and bonding motion. Numerical results show that the bending direction elastic foundation stiffness influences the vibration characteristics significantly in practical range of beam configuration. The ranges of elastic foundation stiffness to avoid the dynamic buckling are also presented. The method presented in this paper can be used to predict the variations of natural frequencies of rotating cantilever beams with elastically restrained root.