Alice Roosevelt Biography
Alice Roosevelt Biography:Alice Lee Roosevelt was born on February 12, 1884, the first and only child born to Theodore Roosevelt and Alice Hathaway Lee. After her mother’s death, Alice, known as “Baby Lee,” lived with her aunt, Anna “Bamie” Roosevelt, while her father started a ranching venture in the Dakota Territory. Once Theodore remarried and moved back to Oyster Bay, Alice moved in with him and his new wife, Edith Kermit Carow, at Sagamore Hill. Two years later, she was joined by Edith and Theodore’s first child, Theodore Jr. She was then referred to as “Sister” by her father and all of her siblings.
Alice Roosevelt early life and education
Alice Roosevelt did not shy away from anything. She was born on February 12th, 1884 in the Roosevelt family home at 6 West 57th Street in Manhattan. Her mother, Alice Hathaway Lee Roosevelt, tragically passed away two days later from what medical historians believe to be undiagnosed Bright’s Disease – the chronic inflammation of the kidneys, the symptoms of which were probably masked by her pregnancy. Utterly distraught without his wife, Alice’s father (then New York State Assemblyman Theodore Roosevelt) could hardly stand to be in the presence of baby Alice. The infant reminded him too much of his wife whom Theodore would hardly ever speak of again and omit entirely from his autobiography, for the pain of losing her was that great. Wanting to escape his sorrow, Theodore left Alice in the care of his sister Anna and departed to his ranch in North Dakota.
Alice Roosevelt Career
From an early age, Alice was interested in politics. When advancing age and illness incapacitated her Aunt Bamie, Alice stepped into her place as an unofficial political adviser to her father. She warned her father against challenging the renomination of William Howard Taft in 1912.
Alice took a hard-line view of the Democrats and in her youth sympathized with the conservative wing of the Republican Party. She supported her half-brother Theodore Roosevelt Jr. when he ran for governor of New York in 1924. When Franklin D. Roosevelt ran for president in 1932 Alice publicly opposed his candidacy. Writing in the Ladies’ Home Journal in October 1932, she said of FDR, “Politically, his branch of the family and ours have always been in different camps, and the same surname is about all we have in common….. I am a Republican….. I am going to vote for Hoover….. If I were not a Republican, I would still vote for Mr. Hoover this time.”
Although Alice did not support John F. Kennedy in the 1960 election, she became very enamored of the Kennedy family and “learned how amusing and attractive Democrats could be”.She developed an affectionate, although sometimes strained, friendship with Robert F. Kennedy, perhaps because of his relatively thin skin. When Alice privately made fun of his scaling the newly named Mount Kennedy in Canada, he was not amused. She admitted to voting for President Lyndon Johnson over Senator Barry Goldwater in 1964 because she believed Goldwater was too mean ,Alice developed a genuine friendship with Richard Nixon when he was vice president. In 1957 he served as a pallbearer at Paulina’s funeral.When he returned to California after Dwight Eisenhower’s second term and his loss in the 1960 presidential election, she kept in touch and did not consider his political career to be over. Alice encouraged Nixon to reenter politics and continued to invite him to her famous dinners. Nixon returned these favors by inviting her to his first formal White House dinner and to the 1971 wedding of his daughter Tricia Nixon.
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Alice Roosevelt personal life
Alice grew up with her five half-siblings at Sagamore Hill, and in Washington and New York City as her father’s jobs dictated. An autodidact and a life-long voracious reader, Alice was intelligent, stubborn, and strong-willed. When Theodore Roosevelt became president in 1901, she made her debut in the White House. Shortly after, she entered on the international stage by christening a ship belonging to the German emperor.
Alice Roosevelt was a celebrity First Daughter known for antics like smoking on the White House roof, carrying a snake in her purse, and betting at horse races. Her parents swallowed their aggravation because the public clearly adored her. In 1905, she accompanied congressmen to Asia as a goodwill ambassador for the Administration, the first First Daughter to act in this capacity.
On February 17, 1906, Alice married Republican Representative Nicholas Longworth of Ohio at the White House. The two were leaders of Washington society, but their marriage was riven by his infidelity and alcoholism. They drifted apart politically in the 1912 election when Alice supported her father’s Progressive Party rather than her husband’s Republican Party.
Alice Roosevelt Death
After many years of ill health, Alice died in her Embassy Row house on February 20, 1980, eight days after her 96th birthday, of emphysema and pneumonia, with contributory effects of a number of other chronic illnesses. She is buried in Rock Creek Cemetery, Washington, D.C.She is the longest-lived child of a US President.