Alice Roosevelt Longworth Biography

Early Life and Family
Alice Lee Roosevelt was born on February 12, 1884, in New York City, the only child of Theodore Roosevelt and his first wife, Alice Hathaway Lee Roosevelt. Her mother died two days after Alice's birth, the same day Theodore's mother died, casting a lasting shadow over the family. Alice spent much of her early childhood with her formidable and affectionate aunt, Anna "Bamie" Roosevelt, while her father sought solace in public service and ranching in the Dakotas. When Theodore married Edith Kermit Carow in 1886, Alice returned to a blended household that would eventually include five half siblings: Theodore Jr., Kermit, Ethel, Archibald, and Quentin. Her devotion to her father was lifelong; he affectionately called her "Baby Lee", and famously quipped, "I can be President of the United States, or I can attend to Alice. I cannot possibly do both".

Rise to Fame in the White House
Alice's public life began in earnest when her father became the 26th president in 1901 after the assassination of William McKinley. At 17, she quickly became America's first modern celebrity daughter, dubbed "Princess Alice" by the press. Independent and irreverent, she smoked in public, tooled around Washington in fast cars, placed bets on horses, and shocked dignitaries by bringing her pet garter snake, "Emily Spinach", "green as spinach and as thin as Aunt Emily", to social functions. Her fashion sense set trends, and the pale tint "Alice blue" inspired a national craze and the song "Alice Blue Gown".

In 1905 she joined a high-profile diplomatic voyage to Asia led by Secretary of War William Howard Taft. The exuberant first daughter captivated foreign and American audiences alike and generated a torrent of headlines, emblematic of the era's fascination with her wit and nonconformity.

Marriage and Washington Society
On February 17, 1906, Alice married Congressman Nicholas Longworth of Ohio in a White House ceremony that drew enormous crowds and international notice. True to form, she famously cut the wedding cake with a borrowed military sword. Longworth, a rising figure in Congress, would eventually serve as Speaker of the House (1925–1931).

The couple's home on Massachusetts Avenue became a premier Washington salon. For more than half a century, Alice presided over a drawing room where cabinet officers, senators, journalists, and ambassadors traded gossip and ideas. A needlepoint pillow in her parlor captured her public persona: "If you can't say something good about someone, sit right here by me".

Politics and Influence
A Republican by lineage and temperament, Alice nonetheless carved out a fiercely independent political identity. In 1912 she defied party regulars, her husband among them, by supporting her father's Progressive ("Bull Moose") bid against President Taft. Her allegiance to Theodore Roosevelt never wavered, but she prized candor over party. Across decades, she befriended and needled presidents of both parties, from her father's contemporaries to John F. Kennedy and Lyndon B. Johnson. She admired style and competence, distrusted pomposity, and was capable of devastating one-liners, Calvin Coolidge, she said, looked as if he'd been "weaned on a pickle". She opposed much of Franklin D. Roosevelt's New Deal and sparred publicly and privately with her distant cousin Franklin and cousin-in-law Eleanor Roosevelt, later arriving at a wary mutual respect with Eleanor as both women matured into Washington institutions.

Though she never held office, Alice influenced politics through social power and public commentary. Reporters courted her, politicians sought her blessing, or at least hoped to avoid her barbs, and her salon served as an unofficial clearinghouse of political intelligence.

Writing and Public Voice
Alice's most enduring literary contribution is her memoir, "Crowded Hours" (1933), a brisk, lively account of her upbringing, White House years, travels, and political encounters. She supplemented it with columns and essays in newspapers and magazines, sharpening the distinctive voice that made her a press favorite. Decades later, her letters, steely, funny, and often tender, would help define her as a writer of character as much as a character in history.

Personal Life
Alice and Nicholas Longworth moved in overlapping but sometimes divergent political worlds. Their marriage blended companionship, rivalry, and long stretches of independence; they remained central to Washington life until Nicholas's death in 1931. Their daughter, Paulina Longworth, born in 1925, was the great joy and worry of Alice's middle years. Widely believed to have been fathered by Alice's longtime friend Senator William E. Borah of Idaho, Paulina married Alexander McCormick Sturm and had a daughter, Joanna. After Paulina's untimely death in 1957, Alice helped raise Joanna, providing stability and sharp-edged affection.

Later Years and Longevity
Alice lived nearly a century and seemed ageless in Washington's public rooms. She endured serious illnesses, including cancer, yet kept her schedule of lunches, receptions, and carefully calibrated mischief. She relished meeting new generations of politicians and, when moved, lent them her favor; she supported some Democrats, including Lyndon B. Johnson in 1964, despite her Republican pedigree. By the 1970s she was revered as the capital's grande dame, an eyewitness to, and participant in, American political life from the Gilded Age to the post-Vietnam era.

Alice Roosevelt Longworth died on February 20, 1980, in Washington, D.C., at age 96, and was interred at Rock Creek Cemetery. Her death marked the end of a living link to the Theodore Roosevelt White House and to an older style of American political society.

Reputation and Anecdotes
Alice's legend grew from equal parts charm, insolence, and quicksilver wit. Tales, some embroidered, some true, followed her: burying an effigy of First Lady Nellie Taft in the White House lawn; plunging fully clothed into a shipboard pool during the 1905 Asian tour; dispatching rivals with a single withering phrase. The stories endure because they fit the woman: independent, theatrical, and strategically shocking when it served a purpose. Her irreverence disguised shrewd political instincts and a deep understanding of power's social dimensions.

People Around Her
- Theodore Roosevelt: Her father, 26th U.S. president, the lodestar of her political loyalties.
- Alice Hathaway Lee Roosevelt: Her mother, who died shortly after Alice's birth.
- Anna "Bamie" Roosevelt: The aunt who helped raise her and shaped her early life.
- Edith Kermit Carow Roosevelt: Her stepmother, with whom relations were often tense but ultimately enduring.
- Nicholas Longworth: Her husband, influential Republican and Speaker of the House.
- Paulina Longworth (Sturm): Her daughter, whose life and loss profoundly affected Alice.
- Joanna Sturm: Her granddaughter, whom Alice helped raise.
- William E. Borah: Idaho senator and intimate friend, widely believed to be Paulina's father.
- Franklin D. and Eleanor Roosevelt: Cousins and foils in politics and society, later complex allies in civic life.
- William Howard Taft: Secretary of War during her 1905 tour and later president; part of her early public stage.
- Calvin Coolidge and Lyndon B. Johnson: Presidents emblematic of her range, one a target of her quips, the other a beneficiary of her late-career support.

Legacy
Alice Roosevelt Longworth transformed the role of a president's daughter into a platform for individual influence. She bridged the private and public spheres at a time when women's formal political power was limited, previewing the leverage of personality and media in modern politics. "Alice blue" may be a color, but it also signifies a presence, stylish, daring, unsentimental, that helped define an age. Through "Crowded Hours", her letters, and the institutional memory of Washington, she remains one of the capital's most vivid originals.

Our collection contains 8 quotes who is written / told by Alice, under the main topic Life.

Related authors: Theodore Roosevelt (President), Franklin D. Roosevelt (President), John F. Kennedy (President), Lyndon B. Johnson (President), Eleanor Roosevelt (First Lady), Calvin Coolidge (President), William Howard Taft (President), Ice T (Musician), Lawrence Taylor (Athlete)

• Q: Alice Roosevelt Longworth books
  A: Crowded Hours (1933).
• Q: Alice Roosevelt Sturm
  A: Refers to her family’s link to the Sturm name via her daughter Paulina Longworth Sturm.
• Q: Alice Roosevelt Longworth cause of death
  A: Complications of pneumonia and emphysema.
• Q: Alice Roosevelt Lobotomy
  A: No, no lobotomy is associated with her.
• Q: Alice Roosevelt husband
  A: Nicholas Longworth III (Speaker of the U.S. House).
• Q: Paulina Longworth Sturm
  A: Alice’s daughter; married Alexander McCormick Sturm; mother of Joanna; died in 1957.
• Q: Alice Roosevelt Longworth died
  A: February 20, 1980, in Washington, D.C.
• Q: How old was Alice Roosevelt Longworth?
  A: She became 96 years old

• 1913 Crowded Hours (Memoir)

• Wikipedia