Here's to sassy, trailblazing ladies like Alice Lee Roosevelt Longworth, the oldest child of Theodore Roosevelt, the 26th President of the United States.
Alice led an unconventional and controversial life. Despite her love for her legendary father, she proved to be almost nothing like him. Her marriage to Representative Nicholas Longworth was shaky, and the couple's only child was a result of her affair with Senator William Borah of Idaho. She proudly boasted in a 60 Minutes interview in 1974 that she was a "hedonist."
Two days after Alice's birth, her mother died of undiagnosed Bright's disease; on the same day, her paternal grandmother, Martha Bulloch Roosevelt, died of typhoid fever.
Theodore was so distraught by his wife's death that he could not bear to think about her. He almost never spoke of her again, would not allow her to be mentioned in his presence, and even omitted her name from his autobiography. Therefore, Alice was called "Baby Lee" instead of her name. She continued this practice late in life, preferring to be called "Mrs. L" rather than "Alice."
Despite strains between Alice and her demanding stepmother Edith, she would save her from life in a wheelchair or on crutches when Alice came down with a mild form of polio in one leg. By Edith's regimen of nightly forced wearing of torturous leg braces and shoes, even over Alice's sobs, Edith ensured that Alice would grow up with almost no trace of the disability. She was able to run up stairs and touch her nose with her toe well into her 80s.
She was as independent and outgoing as she was self-confident and calculating. When her father proposed that Alice attend a conservative school for girls in New York City, she pulled out all the stops, writing to her father, "If you send me I will humiliate you. I will do something that will shame you. I tell you I will."
Alice became an instant celebrity and fashion icon when her father became president. She was known as a rule-breaker in an era when women were under great pressure to conform. She smoked cigarettes in public, rode in cars with men, stayed out late partying, kept a pet snake named Emily Spinach (Emily as in her spinster aunt and Spinach for its green color) in the White House, and was seen placing bets with a bookie. During a cruise to Japan, she jumped into the ship's pool fully clothed, and coaxed a Congressman to join her in the water.
Alice was not without a sense of humor. She once amused herself in the House of Representatives by placing a tack on the chair of a "middle-aged" and "dignified" gentleman. Upon encountering the tack, "like the burst of a bubble on the fountain, like the bolt from the blue, like the ball from the cannon," the unfortunate fellow leapt up in pain and surprise.
When it came time for the Roosevelt family to move out of the White House, Alice buried a Voodoo doll of the new First Lady, Nellie Taft, in the front yard. At many White House social activities, Alice frequently mocked the First Lady, rendering Mrs. Taft rather uncomfortable in Alice's presence, though Alice was some 20 years her junior.
Later in life, she had a double mastectomy. Taking the medical procedure in stride, she referred to herself as the only "topless octogenarian" in Washington.
In 1965 her African American chauffeur and one of her best friends, Turner, was driving Alice to an appointment. During the trip, he pulled out in front of a taxi, and the driver got out and said, "What do you think you're doing, you black bastard?" Turner took the insult calmly, but Alice did not, telling the taxi driver, "He's taking me to my destination, you white son of a bitch!"
To Senator Joseph McCarthy, who had jokingly remarked at a party, "Here's my blind date. I am going to call you Alice," she responded acidly, "Senator McCarthy, you are not going to call me Alice. The trashman and the policeman on my block call me Alice, but you may not."
Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alice_Roosevelt_Longworth
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