During a time of conformity, the American people revelled in the rebellion of Alice. She was known to smoking cigarettes in public, rode unchaperoned in cars with men, took part in voodoo, and placed bets with bookies. It is also generally believed that she buried a voodoo doll of the incoming first lady, Nellie Taft before the Roosevelts left the White House. As a result, she was banned from the White House during the Taft administration. This was not the last time, she again banned from the White House during the Wilson administration for making a joke at the President's expense.
During her father's presidency, Alice was a celebrity and fashion icon. Her fame went so far that a shade of blue was named after her, "Princess Alice Blue". Her father took advantage of her celebrity status and sent her on the "Imperial Cruise", the biggest diplomatic mission up to that point in U.S. history. The cruise included then Secretary of War William Howard Taft, 23 congressmen, 7 senators, and many other diplomats and government officials.
Alice went on to marry congressman Nicholas Longworth of Ohio in February 1906. He was 14 years older than Alice, and their marriage was an unhappy one. During the election of 1912, their relationship was further strained as Alice stayed loyal to her father and Longworth remained loyal to Taft. Alice had numerous affairs throughout their marriage, and it was general knowledge throughout Washington D.C. that she had an ongoing affair with a senator from Ohio. It was also accepted that the senator was the father of Alice's only child Paulina Longworth.
Even after leaving the White House Alice remained involved in the Republican party. She was against F.D.R.'s campaign, was friends with Richard Nixon (until he misquoted her father's diary in his resignation speech), and was surprisingly in favor of both John and Robert Kennedy.Later in life, her health took a turn for the worst, as years of smoking caught up with her. She was diagnosed with emphysema in 1960. She had two masectomies, on in 1956 and the other later in 1970. In 1980, at the age of 96 she passed away as a result of pneumonia.
Sources:
- "AliceRoosevelt Longworth." Wikipedia. Wikimedia Foundation, 27 Oct. 2016. Web. 31 Oct. 2016. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alice_Roosevelt_Longworth
- "Alice Roosevelt Longworth - Theodore Roosevelt's Daughter - Roosevelt Almanac." Alice Roosevelt Longworth - Theodore Roosevelt's Daughter - Roosevelt Almanac. Chapultepec, Inc., n.d. Web. 01 Nov. 2016. http://www.theodore-roosevelt.com/alice.html
This is a very interesting post because in class we watched the video with Alice Roosevelt, but it only mentioned that her mother passed away, not her grandmother as well. In the video, it never mentioned that Alice was sent away for two years after her mother and grandmother's passing, and it must have been a hard time for Roosevelt, but I wonder what his exact motive for this was. When you say she was a celebrity, was she a national or international celebrity? The extensive history of Alice Roosevelt was very helpful to figuring out why her father sent her to Japan, and it went further into it than we did in class.
ReplyDeleteThis gives a lot of insight into how the family dynamic was for the Roosevelts and shows how real these historical figures were. Most of the time we idolize these historical figures and their families and only focus on their policies, but learning about the struggle that Theodore went through after his wife and mother's death and how it affected Alice's life is relatable to many family issues that normal people have. By learning how relatable these historical figures are, it is easier to see their motivations because we can empathize with them and have a better understanding of why policies and wars and peace were able to happen at this time.
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