page_title: Alice Roosevelt Longworth
section_title: Father's presidency
hierarchical_section_title: Alice Roosevelt Longworth / Father's presidency
caption_attribution_description: English: Alice Roosevelt's formal portrait by the classical French academic painter, en:Théobald Chartran (1849-1907). Painted around 1901, when her father, en:Theodore Roosevelt, became president. From my personal collection.
context_page_description: Alice Lee Roosevelt Longworth was an American writer and prominent socialite. She was the eldest child of U.S. President Theodore Roosevelt and the only child of Roosevelt and his first wife, Alice Hathaway Lee.
  Longworth led an unconventional and controversial life. Her marriage to Representative Nicholas Longworth III, a party leader and 38th Speaker of the U.S. House of Representatives, was shaky, and her only child, Paulina, was from her affair with Senator William Edgar Borah of Idaho.
context_section_description: When her father took office in 1901 following the assassination of President William McKinley, Jr. in Buffalo (an event that she greeted with "sheer rapture"), Alice became an instant celebrity and fashion icon at age 17, and at her social debut in 1902 she wore a gown of what was to become known forever afterwards as "Alice blue", sparking a color trend in women's clothing. Alice was known as a rule-breaker in an era when women were under great pressure to conform. The American public noticed many of her exploits and the Journal des Debats in Paris noted that in 15 months Alice Roosevelt had attended 407 dinners, 350 balls and 300 parties. She smoked cigarettes in public, rode in cars with men, stayed out late partying, kept a pet snake named Emily Spinach (Emily after her spinster aunt and Spinach for its green color) in the White House, and was seen placing bets with a bookie.
  In 1905, Alice, along with her father's Secretary of War, William Howard Taft, led the American delegation to Japan, Hawaii, China, the Philippines, and Korea. It was the largest such diplomatic mission thus far, composed of 23 congressmen (including her future husband Nicholas Longworth), seven senators, diplomats, officials and businessmen.
  During the cruise to Japan, Alice jumped into the ship's pool fully clothed, and coaxed Congressman Longworth to join her in the water. (Years later Bobby Kennedy would chide her about the incident, saying it was outrageous for the time, to which the by-then-octogenarian Alice replied that it would only have been outrageous had she removed her clothes.) In her autobiography, Crowded Hours, Alice made note of the event, pointing out that there was little difference between the linen skirt and blouse she had been wearing and a lady's swimsuit of the period.
  Once, a White House visitor commented on Alice's frequent interruptions to the Oval Office, often to offer political advice. The exhausted president commented to his friend, author Owen Wister, after her third interruption to their conversation and threatening to throw her '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, and she thrived on the attention, even as she chafed at some of the restrictions such attention placed on her. In this, Alice resembled her father. She later said of Theodore, "He wants to be the bride at every wedding, the corpse at every funeral, and the baby at every christening."
caption: Alice Roosevelt, formal portrait by Theobald Chartran 1901.
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