Alice, Did You Really Say That? Not to Mention . . . .
Teddy Roosevelt's daughter Alice lived a long and memorable life. She was definitely challenging to her father, who once said, "I can be President of the United States, or I can control Alice. I cannot possibly do both."
Alice Roosevelt's mother, also named Alice, was strikingly beautiful. She married Theodore Roosevelt at age 19, but only lived to be 22, and as Theodore wrote in his diary, "And when my heart's dearest died, the light went from my life forever." He would not allow her name to be spoken and never mentioned her in his autobiography. His daughter became known as "Baby Lee." Shortly after his wife Alice's death, Teddy asked his sister "Bamie" to care for Alice, while he traveled to his ranch in South Dakota to recover from his loss. He had also lost his mother on the same day in the same house. TR remarried when he returned and he and his new wife Edith took custody of Alice at age three.
Alice was often at her Aunt Bamie's doorstep, as Teddy and Edith had difficulty handling her. TR spent little time with her as a child, often relying on Alice's maternal grandparents for support. Relations became strained with her stepmother Edith as time went by. It was Edith who often said unkind things about Alice's mother. Edith did, however, take important measures to help Alice through difficult times with polio. Consequently, she showed few signs of the disability with her leg.
Alice Roosevelt was an unconventional woman who often spoke and acted with controversy. When her father became President in
1901, Alice was only 17, and she became an instant celebrity. She was excited about being in the White House and often showed up in the Oval Office, offering political advice. The president tired of it and once threatened to throw her out the window. She seemed unconcerned, and often chose to party, smoke in public, and even took care of a pet snake named Emily Spinach. She was always very fashionable and grew up to be independent and self-confident.
At times Alice had an unusual way of attracting attention in
Washington. Once in the Capitol gallery at the House of Representatives, she put a tack on the chair of a "dignified gentleman" who jumped up in pain while Alice looked the other way. Several administrations even banned her from the White House because of questionable comments directed at occupants. Although a Republican, she was not afraid to criticize and use her sharp wit against different presidential candidates of her own party, including Thomas Dewey, who ran for president against Franklin Roosevelt in 1944. She once confessed that she had voted for Lyndon Johnson and was fond of the Kennedy's.
At times Alice had an unusual way of attracting attention in
In 1906 Alice Roosevelt married a U.S. congressman named Nicholas Longworth. Although he became Speaker of the House, Alice criticized him and even campaigned against him in 1912. He lost--by only 106 votes, and although he won again in 1914, it created conflict in their marriage. She later had a child by a U.S. senator.
Alice Roosevelt died in 1980 at the age of 96. She lived longer
than all five of her half-siblings of Teddy Roosevelt's second marriage. Upon hearing of her death, President Carter said, "She had style, she had grace, and she had a sense of humor that kept generations of political newcomers to Washington wondering which was worse--to be skewered by her wit or to be ignored by her." Once former Senator Joseph McCarthy said to her at a party, "Here's my blind date. I am going to call you Alice." She answered sarcastically, "Senator McCarthy, you are not going to call me Alice. The trash man and the police man on my block call me Alice, but you may not."
Alice spoke fondly of TR's sister "Bamie, who took care of her in her early years while Teddy was recovering from the loss of his wife and mother. Alice once said, "If Auntie Bye had been a man, she would have been president." She added, "There is always someone in every family who keeps it together. In ours, it was Auntie Bye."
President Theodore Roosevelt's daughter Alice expressed many interesting thoughts through the years, and here are a few "choice" ones:
"If you haven't got anything nice to say about anybody, come sit next to me."
"My father always wanted to be the corpse at every funeral, the bride at every wedding, and the baby at every christening."
About President Calvin Coolidge she once said, "He looks as though he's been weaned on a pickle."
Although Alice Roosevelt was a woman of much controversy, and at times outrageous, she certainly seemed to enjoy life to the fullest, and as the American writer Rita Mae Brown once said, "I finally figured out the only reason to be alive is to enjoy it."
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