Crowded hours,: Reminiscences of Alice Roosevelt Longworth
(Alice Lee Roosevelt Longworth (1884 - 1980) was the oldes...)
Alice Lee Roosevelt Longworth (1884 - 1980) was the oldest child of Theodore Roosevelt, the 26th President of the United States and the only child of Roosevelt's first wife, Alice Hathaway Lee. Alice Longworth led an unconventional and controversial life, her marriage to Representative Nicholas Longworth (Republican-Ohio) was rocky. This book received rave reviews TIME Magazine praised its "insouciant vitality."
Alice Lee Roosevelt Longworth was an American writer and prominent socialite. She was the eldest child of U. S. President Theodore Roosevelt.
Background
Alice Lee Roosevelt Longworth was born on February 12, 1884 in New York City, New York, Unites States, the only child of Theodore Roosevelt and Alice Hathaway Lee. Two days after she was born, her mother died, and care of the infant Alice passed to her paternal aunt, Anna Roosevelt Cowles, while Theodore Roosevelt grieved in Dakota Territory. Alice lived in New York City and Sagamore Hill, Long Island, receiving periodic visits from her father until December 2, 1886, when Theodore married Edith Kermit Carow; thereafter, the three made their home at Sagamore Hill. Eventually Alice had four stepbrothers and one stepsister.
Alice matured in Albany, New York City, and Washington, D. C. , as Theodore's burgeoning political career necessitated the family's moves to those locations. Alice desired a reassuring closeness with her busy father, and suffered emotionally from his distance from her and his preoccupation with his career. Meanwhile, illness and childbearing distracted Edith from nurturing Alice. Alice rebelled against their disinterest by refusing to be confirmed in the church, playing poker for money, and choosing friends of whom her parents disapproved.
Education
Alice received an irregular education. Intelligent, curious, and precocious, she studied broadly on her own and was often tested by her father, who administered oral examinations.
Career
Theodore Roosevelt assumed the presidency in September 1901, and Alice became "First Daughter. " In January 1902 she made her formal debut at a party given at the White House. Slender, graceful, and attractive, Alice soon thereafter christened Kaiser Wilhelm's American-made yacht and simultaneously launched herself into the international spotlight. The press nicknamed her "Princess Alice, " an undemocratic but affectionate title that recalled Alice's high spirits and intuitive understanding of her semiofficial position as First Daughter. Theodore sent Alice to Cuba and Puerto Rico as his emissary. She made a highly publicized goodwill tour of four countries during the 1905 Russo-Japanese War settlement. The mikado, the dowager empress of China, and Korean and Filipino leaders treated Alice as visiting royalty.
At home, Alice engaged in entertainments calculated to capture her father's attention. She mimicked his friends. She drove unchaperoned and too fast. She smoked in public. She carried her pet snake to parties, ate broccoli with gloved fingers, and befriended the nouveau riche, a group her father abhorred. Thousands of fans attended her public appearances while the press recorded it all.
To her parents' relief Alice wed Nicholas Longworth, a politician, who launched a successful campaign for a third term in the House of Representatives. In the 1908 Republican sweep Nick won reelection. Alice appeared at her husband's political rallies, but generally decreased her public appearances. She refused to conform to Washington's byzantine social codes. Alice gained fame as a hostess who could encourage friendly and enlightening dissent between political enemies. Their famed parties often ended with Nick's violin performances (he was talented enough to be a professional musician) or all-night games of high-stakes poker.
After her marriage, Theodore used Alice as a political sounding board. She enthusiastically supported her father's 1912 third party attempt, despite Nick's awkward position of being son-in-law of the Progressive party leader, and one of Ohio's Republican party heirs-apparent. That year, Theodore Roosevelt failed to win the presidency, Nick suffered his only congressional defeat, and the Longworths retreated to the family mansion in Cincinnati. Nick won reelection in 1914 without his wife's assistance. Alice instead joined her father to campaign for America's rapid entry into World War I. She did no war work, but instead acted in her now customary role of congressional watchdog and bipartisan lampooner.
In 1920, Alice joined the Ohio Republican Committee and stumped for Warren G. Harding, whom she called "not a bad man, just a slob. " In 1925, Nicholas Longworth was elected Speaker of the House, a position he retained until his death in 1931. In 1933 Alice wrote her autobiography, Crowded Hours (1933). She attended the 1936 Republican convention as a delegate and redoubled her attacks on New Deal Democrats in her short-lived, syndicated newspaper column, a conservative counterpoint to her first cousin Eleanor Roosevelt's "My Day. "
During World War II Alice served as an officer of the American First Committee, an organization committed to keeping the United States out of World War II. Alice considered the gyrations of the House UnAmerican Activities Committee in the 1950's a great spectator sport. In later life, as "Washington's other monument, " she devoted herself to dishing up political polemics at her notorious dinner parties. Presidents Kennedy, Johnson, Nixon, and Ford courted Alice.
She was famed for controversial actions in early life and her later celebrity rested upon such witticisms as comparing Thomas E. Dewey to "the groom on a wedding cake, " and calling FDR "two-thirds mush and one-third Eleanor. " Of President Lyndon B. Johnson's televised display of his gall-bladder operation scars, she opined, "I suppose we should be grateful it wasn't a prostate operation. " Mrs. Longworth asserted that "Wendell Willkie sprang from the grass roots--of the country clubs of America, " and that Calvin Coolidge looked "as though he had been weaned on a pickle. " Critics accused Alice of mean-spiritedness, but Washingtonians knew it was better to be jibed at than ignored by "Mrs. L. " Longworth died in Washington just after her ninety-sixth birthday.
(Alice Lee Roosevelt Longworth (1884 - 1980) was the oldes...)
Politics
Alice opposed American involvement in the League of Nations. She campaigned against her fifth cousin, Franklin D. Roosevelt and his New Deal. In 1932 she supported Herbert Hoover for president. During World War II she campaigned for isolationist presidential candidate Robert Taft.
Alice was a lifelong member of the Republican party. Yet her political sympathies began to change when she became close to the Kennedy family and Lyndon Johnson. She voted Democratic in 1964 and was known to be supporting Bobby Kennedy in the 1968 Democratic primary.
Views
Quotations:
"If you haven't got anything nice to say, come and sit by me. "
"My specialty is detached malevolence. "
"He sprang from the grass roots of the country clubs of America. "
"I've always believed in the adage that the secret of eternal youth is arrested development. "
"I can be President of the United States, or I can control Alice. I cannot possibly do both. "
Connections
On February 17, 1906, Alice married Congressman Nicholas Longworth of Ohio in a celebrated White House ceremony. The Longworths honeymooned in Cuba and then traveled to Europe, where the royalty of England, France, and Germany entertained them. On February 14, 1925, at age forty-one, Alice gave birth to her only child, Paulina. Contemporary gossip attributed Paulina's paternity to Senator William E. Borah, but Nick Longworth adored his daughter.