In 1955, Alice fell and suffered a broken hip.
In 1956, she was diagnosed with breast cancer, and though she successfully underwent a mastectomy at the time, cancer was found in her other breast in 1970, requiring a second mastectomy.

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.

It is possible her change in political leanings was the result of the social upheavals occurring in American society at the same time.
Beginning in the late 1950s and continuing into the 1970s, the struggle of African-Americans for social and legal equality could not have escaped the notice of a woman always known for approaching everyone she first met with respect, without regard for station in life.
As an example of her attitudes on race, in 1965 her black chauffeur Richard Turner, who was also one of her best friends, was driving Alice to an appointment.
During the trip, Turner pulled out in front of a taxi, and the driver got out and demanded to know of Turner, "What do you think you're doing, you black bastard?"
Turner took the insult calmly, but Alice did not and told the taxi driver, "He's taking me to my destination, you white son of a bitch!"

After Robert F. Kennedy was assassinated in 1968, Alice again supported her friend Richard Nixon, just as she had done in his 1960 campaign against John F. Kennedy.
Her long friendship with Nixon ended at the conclusion of the Watergate Scandal, specifically 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."
This infuriated Alice, who spat curse words at her television screen as she watched him compare his early departure from the White House (in the face of probable impeachment and possible criminal prosecution) to her idealistic young father's loss of his wife and mother on the same day due to illness.
Nixon, however, called her "the most interesting [conversationalist of the age]" and said, "No one, no matter how famous, could ever outshine her."

She remained cordial with Nixon's successor, Gerald Ford, but a perceived lack of social grace on the part of Jimmy Carter caused her to decline to ever meet him, the last sitting president in her lifetime.
In the official statement marking her death, President Carter wrote "She had style, she had grace, and she had a sense of humor that kept generations of political newcomers to Washington wondering which was worse—to be skewered by her wit or to be ignored by her."

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 was the last surviving child of Theodore Roosevelt.

Of her quotable comments, Alice's most famous found its way to a pillow on her settee: "If you can't say something good about someone, sit right here by me."
To Senator Joseph McCarthy, who had jokingly remarked at a party "Here's my blind date.
I am going to call you Alice," she sarcastically said "Senator McCarthy, you are not going to call me Alice.
The truckman, the trashman and the policeman on my block may call me Alice, but you may not."
She informed President Lyndon B. Johnson that she wore wide-brimmed 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, she quipped, "You can't make a soufflé rise twice."
 She said in a 60 Minutes interview with Eric Sevareid, televised on February 17, 1974, that she was a hedonist.
In 1955, Alice fell and suffered a broken hip. In 1956, she was diagnosed with breast cancer, and though she successfully underwent a mastectomy at the time, cancer was found in her other breast in 1970, requiring a second mastectomy.
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.
It is possible her change in political leanings was the result of the social upheavals occurring in American society at the same time. Beginning in the late 1950s and continuing into the 1970s, the struggle of African-Americans for social and legal equality could not have escaped the notice of a woman always known for approaching everyone she first met with respect, without regard for station in life. As an example of her attitudes on race, in 1965 her black chauffeur Richard Turner, who was also one of her best friends, was driving Alice to an appointment. During the trip, Turner pulled out in front of a taxi, and the driver got out and demanded to know of Turner, "What do you think you're doing, you black bastard?" Turner took the insult calmly, but Alice did not and told the taxi driver, "He's taking me to my destination, you white son of a bitch!"
After Robert F. Kennedy was assassinated in 1968, Alice again supported her friend Richard Nixon, just as she had done in his 1960 campaign against John F. Kennedy. Her long friendship with Nixon ended at the conclusion of the Watergate Scandal, specifically 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." This infuriated Alice, who spat curse words at her television screen as she watched him compare his early departure from the White House (in the face of probable impeachment and possible criminal prosecution) to her idealistic young father's loss of his wife and mother on the same day due to illness. Nixon, however, called her "the most interesting [conversationalist of the age]" and said, "No one, no matter how famous, could ever outshine her."
She remained cordial with Nixon's successor, Gerald Ford, but a perceived lack of social grace on the part of Jimmy Carter caused her to decline to ever meet him, the last sitting president in her lifetime. In the official statement marking her death, President Carter wrote "She had style, she had grace, and she had a sense of humor that kept generations of political newcomers to Washington wondering which was worse—to be skewered by her wit or to be ignored by her."
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 was the last surviving child of Theodore Roosevelt.
Of her quotable comments, Alice's most famous found its way to a pillow on her settee: "If you can't say something good about someone, sit right here by me." To Senator Joseph McCarthy, who had jokingly remarked at a party "Here's my blind date. I am going to call you Alice," she sarcastically said "Senator McCarthy, you are not going to call me Alice. The truckman, the trashman and the policeman on my block may call me Alice, but you may not." She informed President Lyndon B. Johnson that she wore wide-brimmed 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, she quipped, "You can't make a soufflé rise twice."  She said in a 60 Minutes interview with Eric Sevareid, televised on February 17, 1974, that she was a hedonist.
Alice Roosevelt Longworth