Alice Roosevelt Longworth
From Free net encyclopedia
Image:Alice roosevelt color 3.jpgAlice Lee Roosevelt Longworth (February 12, 1884 – February 20,1980) was the only child of Theodore Roosevelt, also known as TR and Teddy, the 26th President of the United States, and his first wife, Alice Hathaway Lee.
Alice led an unconventional and sometimes controversial life, and despite her love and admiration for her legendary father, she proved to be almost nothing like him. She was not faithful in her marriage, she spurned Christianity, once considered accepting the offer to be "an honorary homosexual" in the late 1960s, temporarily became a Democrat during the Kennedy and Johnson administrations, and proudly boasted in a 60 Minutes interview that she was a "hedonist."
Childhood
Image:TR Family 1895 CivSvc Comm.jpg
Alice Lee Roosevelt was born at the Roosevelt family home on 6 West 57th St. in New York City. Two days after her birth, in the same house, both her mother, Alice, a Boston banking heiress, and her paternal grandmother, Martha, died; the former of undiagnosed Bright's disease, the latter from tuberculosis. Her father, then a New York state legislator, was so distraught with the loss that the only way he could deal with this tragedy was to try not to even think about his deceased spouse. While he wrote a short tribute to her in his diary and made a couple of references to her in the months after her death, from the next year on, Roosevelt tried never to speak of her again. He refused to have her name mentioned in his presence and even omitted her name from his autobiography. Even his daughter was seldom referred to by her name calling her "Baby Lee." (the use of any name other than Alice was a practice she continued late in life, preferring to be called "Mrs. L"). Grief-stricken, Roosevelt left his infant daughter Alice in the care of his sister Bamie, (also known as "Bye").
The influence of Theodore Roosevelt's sister, Bamie and the Lee grandparents
Bamie would be one strongest stabilizing influence on Alice. She would take Alice under her watchful care until TR married Edith Kermit Carow, at which time she would come under her step-mother's wing and during much of Alice's childhood, Bamie would be a remote figure who eventually would marry and move to London for at time. Aunty "Bye", Bamie would provide the needed structure and stability, on and off again, as Alice became more and more independent, and her father and step-mother would come into conflict with that independence and rebellious nature. Late in life, when Alice spoke of her beloved Auntie Bye in an series of interviews lasting over five years with Michael Teague, she told him that, "There is always someone in every family who keeps it together. In ours, it was Auntie Bye."
Increasingly, Alice's parents would send her off to visit Bamie when they couldn't handle her. Likewise it would be Alice's Lee grandparents (on her mother's side) in Boston, with whom Alice would spend summers and holiday periods, including Thanksgiving, who would give her the undivided attention she could seldom find in her father's home to the point of spoiling her as only grandparents can. They would provide an unconditional love and constancy of affection that Alice would miss in her father's new home with her step-mother Edith. But in the weeks after his wife's death, her father embarked on a journey of personal discovery to the violent Old West, an experience that largely allowed him to rise above his childhood illnesses and physical limitations and so influenced his life that it would substantially contribute to the succession of personal accomplishments that led him to the White House in September 1901.
Her father's return from the West and marriage to Edith Carow
After returning east, and running for and losing the election to mayor of New York City,Theodore Roosevelt went to London where he married a childhood friend, Edith Kermit Carow, by whom he would have five more children. There were strains in the relationship between TR and his daughter, and he essentially had nothing to do with her during her early years, leaving the work to other people, such as his sister Bamie, Alice's maternal grandparents and even his second wife, Edith. Alice was continually shuffled about from one house to another, even as a teenager, and she later said she often felt like he loved her "one-sixth" as much as the other children. There were also tensions in the relationship between young Alice and her stepmother, who had known her husband's previous wife and made it clear that she regarded her predecessor as a beautiful but insipid, childlike fool. As Alice Longworth later recalled, her stepmother once angrily told her that if Alice's mother, Alice Lee Roosevelt had lived, she would have bored her father to death. Despite these strains, it would be Edith, the demanding step-mother, who would save Alice from a life possibly in a wheelchair or on crutches when Alice came down with a mild form of polio and one leg and its muscles grew shorter than the other. By Edith's uncompromising regimen of nightly forced wearing of torturous leg braces and shoes, even over Alice's sobs, Edith insured that Alice would grow up with almost no trace of the disablilty. Alice would be able to run up stairs, touch her nose with her toe well into her 80s because of a step-mother she really didn't appreciate.
Growing young womanhood
Alice, always spoiled with gifts, matured into young womanhood and in the course became known as a great beauty like her mother. However the years of separation between her and her father, combined with the continued tension between her and her stepmother, and the lack of attention by her ever-occupied father, molded a young woman who was as independent and outgoing as she was self-confident and calculating.
Father's Presidency
Image:Theodore Roosevelt and family, 1903.jpg
When her father took office following the assassination of President William McKinley (an event that "filled (me) with an extreme rapture"), Alice became an instant celebrity and fashion icon. While proud of her father's accomplishment, she also was painfully aware that his new duties would afford her even less of his time and getting more of his attention was something she really longed for. She was known as a rule-breaker in an era when women were under great pressure to conform. Among her exploits that garnered national attention were smoking a cigarette in public, driving a car with boys in it, and staying out all hours of the night partying, keeping a pet snake named Emily Spinach (Emily as in her spinster aunt and Spinach as in garter snake green) in the White House, and being seen, placing bets with a bookie. This was simply not the sort of demeanor expected of a turn-of- the-century American President's daughter.
Image:AliceRooseveltwPekingeseDog1902.jpg Alice, along with her father's Secretary of War, William Howard Taft, led the largest diplomatic mission in U.S. history up until that time, including 35 U.S. Congressmen (future husband Nicholas Longworth included) and other diplomats to Japan. She made headlines wherever she went, being photographed with the Emperor of Japan and the Empress Dowager Cixi of China, as well as attending sumo wrestling matches. In the cruise to Japan, she made a splash by jumping into the ship's pool with all her clothes on. The diplomatic junket, and Alice's ability to keep the press at bay by becoming the center of attention, contributed to her father's successfully concluding the Treaty of Portsmouth in 1905 that ended the Russo-Japanese War, which eventually made her father the first-ever Nobel Peace Prize winner in American history.
Image:Alice Roosevelt Mar 24 1902 side in black.jpg.jpg Once when a White House visitor commented on Alice's frequent interruptions to the Oval Office, often because of Alice's political advice, the exhausted President commented to his friend, author Owen Wister, after the third interuption to their conversation and after threatening to throw Alice "out the window." "I can either run the country or I can attend to Alice, but I cannot possibly do both."
Alice was the center of attention in the social context of her father's presidency, especially at her wedding, but she had to be very competitive to get noticed when he was around. She said of his love of attention, that he "wants to be the bride at every wedding, the corpse at every funeral, and the baby at every christening."
Married life
For her husband, Alice chose Nicholas Longworth, a U.S. House of Representatives member from Cincinnati, Ohio, who ultimately would rise to become Speaker of the House. Their 1906 wedding is considered by some the biggest social event in White House history.
A scion of a socially prominent Ohio family and a brother-in-law of a French count, Nick had a well-documented reputation as a Washington, D.C. playboy, and the two made an awkward couple. The couple had a daughter, Paulina Longworth (1925-1957), though there is much evidence to suggest that the real father was Alice's long-time lover, Senator William Edgar Borah. Alice's granddaughter, Joanna Sturm, recently allowed a Roosevelt historian to have permission to see Alice's diaries for the first time ever, and the book states categorically that the father was not Nicholas Longworth, although the historian has decided to wait until the book is published (planned for 2006) to reveal Paulina's biological father.
Alice and Nick shared an interest in Republican politics and power, but little else. Of the two, Alice was known as taking the more hard-line Republican position, while Longworth was more affable. Alice publicly supported her father's 1912 Bull Moose presidential candidacy, while Nick stayed loyal to his mentor, President Taft. She once appeared on stage with her father's vice presidential candidate, Hiram Johnson, in Nick's own district. He later lost by about 100 votes, and she joked that she was worth at least 100 votes (meaning she was the reason he lost) but he was elected again in 1914 and stayed in the House for the rest of his life. Nick would be reelected and become Speaker of the House of Representatives. At that time, the Longworths moved to their 2009 Massachusetts Avenue home in Washington. Alice would live there all her life. The site and building is now the headquarters of the Washington Legal Foundation.
During their marriage Longworth carried on numerous affairs; Alice responded by using every opportunity to make disparaging remarks about his home district of Cincinnati, Ohio, which she mockingly called "Cincinasty," calling its residents "ignorant savages," and worse.
Post-TR presidency
Image:Nicholas Longworth & wife Alice Roosevelt Longworth.jpg When it came time for the Roosevelt family to move out of the White House, Alice buried a Voodoo doll of the new First Lady, Nellie Taft in the front yard. At many White House social activities such as dinners, Alice frequently mocked the First Lady, rendering Mrs. Taft rather uncomfortable in Alice's presence who was some twenty years her junior. Mrs. Taft offended Alice by offering her an invitation to the White House, upon receiving the invitation, Alice asked, "Me? Who walked the halls of the White House for so many years." Later, The Taft White House would mark her first ban from her former residence. During the administration of Woodrow Wilson (from which she was banned in 1916 for a bawdy joke at Wilson's expense), Alice worked endlessly against the entry of the United States into the League of Nations. Her Washington society dinners and reception lobbying is credited with helping to derail America's membership in the League of Nations.
Image:Paulina & Alice Roosevelt Longworth.jpg With great relief, Alice welcomed the presidency of Warren G. Harding, although her feelings toward the Hardings was slightly lower than those she felt toward Cincinnati. Mrs. Longworth felt that Harding was a crass man, barely educated, and ill-suited for the job, but they were on good terms (and she would become close to his vice president, Calvin Coolidge). She also recognized that Harding's election dimmed the prospects of her own husband's possible ascendancy in the new administration, although she was pleased that Harding was a Republican and had appointed Henry Cabot Lodge to his cabinet. Her feelings toward First Lady Florence Harding grew more strained during the Hardings' years in Washington. Alice felt that she had lost her best friend, Evalyn Walsh McLean, to Florence, and the relationship between Alice -- the Speaker's wife -- and the President's wife grew bitter.
Following the death of her husband in 1931, Alice Longworth and her daughter continued to live near Dupont Circle on Massachusetts Avenue, Washington's Embassy Row. When asked if she would run for her late husband's seat, she declined. She seldom spoke at public receptions, so campaigning did not suit her. Her final visits to Cincinnati were in order to fulfill obligations, not for pleasure. One such trip was made for the burial of her husband, another for the social debut of her daughter. When asked if she would be buried in Cincinnati, Mrs. Longworth said that to do so "would be a fate worse than death itself."
With the Great Depression affecting even the Longworth fortune, Mrs. L decided to appear in tobacco advertisements and a campaign that was credited with making smoking common in Hollywood movies, and thus, popular nationwide. She made thousands and secured her financial status in the year's following her husband's death.
The other Washington Monument
The widow Longworth maintained her stature in the community, socially and politically, garnering her the nickname of "the other Washington Monument". Mrs. Longworth served as a delegate to Republican National Convention.
Alice's wit was legendary in Washington, DC; and that wit could have a deadly political effect on friend and foe alike. When Alice demolished Thomas Dewey, the 1944 opponent of her cousin Franklin, by comparing the pencil-line mustached Republican to “the little man on the wedding cake.” The image stuck and Governor Dewey lost two consecutive presidential elections.
Paulina Longworth married Alexander McCormick Sturm, with whom she had a daughter, Joanna (b. 1944). Sturm died in 1951. Following the death of her daughter in 1957 (by an overdose of sleeping pills, for many years suspected of being an accident), Alice Longworth fought for and won the custody of her granddaughter Joanna Sturm, whom she raised. Unlike her relationship with her daughter, Mrs. Longworth doted on her granddaughter and the two were very close. Upon Paulina's death, her cousin Eleanor Roosevelt sent condolences and the two mended their broken relationship based on their obvious political differences.
Privacy activism
Alice was a constant critic of the media's shadowing of famous people. Throughout her life, newspapers would map out a timeline of a celebrity's daily itinerary for the public to see. This included a minute-by-minute analysis that was often accurate. The unwanted timelines were the predecessor to the modern-day paparazzi invasions on celebrity's lives, and just as dangerous. This was a controversial practice, because assassins and other deranged people used the newspaper timelines accurately on many occasions. This included the assassinations of presidents Abraham Lincoln, James Garfield, William McKinley, and John Kennedy.
Mrs. L only became an activist after the attempt on her father Theodore Roosevelt's life in 1912, but stayed an advocate by spotlighting other attempts (notable ones included the 1933 attempt on her cousin Franklin that killed Chicago Mayor Anton Cermak, the 1972 attempt on George Wallace and the murder of John Lennon). In the late 1960s, a thief used a newspaper to know exactly when Alice's house would be empty, and he ransacked it stealing her jewelry (which she later got back, and carried in her purse each time she left the house afterwards). But, it was when Sirhan Sirhan killed her close friend Bobby Kennedy in 1968 that she publicly spoke most strongly, appearing on 60 Minutes in her only televised interview.
She would not live to see the practice of the media producing timelines of her and other famous people stopped, as it would only be forced to end after the uproar caused by John Hinckley when he used the newspapers to plan the shooting of Ronald Reagan in 1981, the year after her death.
Following the break-in of her home in the 1960s, Mrs. Longworth planted and trained poison ivy to grow up the façade of her Washington house as a deterrent to future would-be burglars.
Alice and Eleanor
Image:Eleanor Alice Roosevelt Churchill wife 1944.gif
Alice had spent much of her young life being considered the most famous woman in the world, where photographers often asked presidents to step aside so they could get a picture of her alone. Because of this, she was asked to compete with her cousin Anna Eleanor Roosevelt when Eleanor became First Lady upon the election of their cousin, Franklin Roosevelt, also Eleanor's husband. Eleanor, like Alice, attracted much attention upon reaching the spotlight. For a time, Alice and Eleanor were competing newspaper columnists both beginning in 1936, with Alice's "Capitol Comment" column being overwhelmingly less popular than Eleanor's "My Day". Alice found that her clever and world-famous witticisms did not translate so well into print and she quickly lost interest. After numerous dull prints, Mrs. L. was paid a handsome sum to cancel the column.
The relationship between the two cousins was strange. They grew up together, and TR often scolded Alice to be more like her prim and proper cousin. Their childhood years marked the beginning Alice's lifelong obsession with Eleanor. Alice later commented that Eleanor was much more like her father than she was, an assessment Eleanor agreed with. As adults, Alice and Eleanor often spent time together, invited each other to dinners and other social functions, suggesting they didn't let politics completely interfere with family affairs. As soon as they reached the political forefront though, fierce competition began between the two. Mrs. Longworth especially enjoyed antagonizing Eleanor and often imitated her among Republican social circles. It was Mrs. L. who facilitated the affair between FDR and Lucy Page Mercer.
As many obvious differences that there may have been between Alice and Eleanor, there were many similarities.
- They led unconventional and controversial lives.
- Each had deeply insecure personalities.
- They were envious of one another.
- Both were orphaned or semi-orphaned before age ten.
- Both had very unstable childhoods.
- Both adored their father.
- Both were married to cheating men.
- Both were unfaithful in her marriage.
- Each were extremely unattentive as mothers.
- Both were highly competitive by nature.
- Both thrived on attention.
- Both were banned from the White House due to disparaging remarks made on its occupants.
- Both adored Theodore Roosevelt.
- Each were notorious for holding grudges and being vindictive.
- Was the Grande Dame of her respective party until her death.
- Preferred to be called by the first letter of their last name: "Mrs. R." and "Mrs. L."
When Franklin was elected president, Alice loved to joke about it. She said that the pastor at Franklin's church was so thrilled that he put up a sign that read, "The president's church," adding that an anonymous person put up a smaller sign beneath it that read, "formerly God's." Later, Alice was asked what she thought of her cousin FDR being elected to a third term in office and Mrs. L commented, "I'd rather vote for Hitler than to vote for Franklin one more time." This comment deeply offended Mr. Roosevelt and Alice was banned from the White House for the remainder of their tenure. To this day, Alice remains the person who was most banned from the White House in its history, but only partly because of the ban from her cousins.
On a train ride, Alice informed Eleanor that "No matter how much our politics may differ, there is still a tribal feeling between us." Both Alice and Eleanor agreed that the media often played up the tension between them two. Alice was also quick to come to Eleanor's defense. Once when a reporter was about to recite Edith Roosevelt's much quoted ugly duckling line, Alice sharply reprimanded him, saying that Eleanor had turned into, "Not a swan, something much better than a swan!"
Alice continued to remember her close friend and cousin Eleanor Roosevelt long after Eleanor's death. In senility, Mrs. Longworth would ask spontaneously, "Where's Eleanor, what's Eleanor doing?"
Odds and ends
Alice was a lifelong Republican, like her father. This changed when she became close to the Kennedy family and Lyndon Johnson, voting Democratic in 1964 and in the 1968 Democratic primary for Bobby Kennedy. After Bobby was murdered, she supported Richard Nixon. Her friendship ended when Nixon quoted her father's diary at his resignation, saying "Only if you've been to the lowest valley can you know how great it is to be on the highest mountain top," and other things TR said when Alice's mother died. At this point, Nixon infuriated Alice, who literally spat curse words at her television screen as she watched him compare his loss - due to criminal behavior- to her young father's loss of her mother and grandmother on the same day due to illness.
She remained cordial with Nixon's successor, Gerald Ford, but a minor lack of social grace on the part of Jimmy Carter caused her to decline to ever meet the last sitting president in her lifetime.
Image:Alice Roosevelt Christens Sub TR.jpg
In 1965, as her chauffeur was driving Mrs. L. to an appointment, he pulled out in front of a taxi causing the driver to get out and ask the chaffeur,"What do you think you're doing you black son of a bitch?" Although the driver took the insult calmly, Mrs. L. did not and asked the taxi driver, "What do you think you're doing you white son of a bitch?"
In 1958, Mrs. L. was found to be suffering from breast cancer and successfully underwent a mastectomy and was again later found to have cancer that required a second mastectomy. After these surgeries, Mrs. L.'s health was not as strong as it once had been but she continued a rigorous schedule and maintained her social rounds. After many years of ill health, Alice finally died in her Embassy Row home in 1980 of emphysema, pneumonia, cardiac arrest and a number of other extended illnesses at the age of 96. Alice Roosevelt Longworth is buried in Rock Creek Cemetery, Rock Creek Park, Washington, D.C.
When the last one of the Rahl children was born in Hale, Michigan in 1906, Jennie, the oldest child, insisted she be named Alice Roosevelt Rahl, because she was born on the same day the President’s daughter was married.
Of her quotable quotes, her most famous found its way to a pillow on her settee: "If you haven't anything nice to say, come sit by me." To Senator Joseph McCarthy she stated that the garbage men, taxi drivers and street sweepers in her neighborhood could call her by her first name, but that he could not. She also informed President Lyndon B. Johnson that she wore wide brim hats so he couldn't kiss her. When a well-known Washington senator was discovered to have been having an affair with a young woman less than half his age, Mrs. Longworth quipped, "You can't make a soufflé rise twice."
See also
- Alice Lee Roosevelt Mother
- Theodore Roosevelt Alice's Father
- Edith Kermit Roosevelt Alice's Step-mother
- Nicholas Longworth Alice's Husband
- Paulina Longworth Alice's Daughter
- Joanna Sturm Alice's Grand Daughter and companion
- Martha Roosevelt Grandmother
- Bamie Roosevelt - Auntie Bye, Theodore's talented sister and stability figure in Alice's life
- Washington Legal Foundation - the organization that occupies the former Longworth site in Washington, DC.