Alice Roosevelt Longworth
Future President Theodore Roosevelt’s wife and mother die, only hours apart, on February 14, 1884.
Roosevelt was at work in the New York state legislature attempting to get a government reform bill passed when he was summoned home by his family. He returned home to find his mother, Mittie, had succumbed to typhoid fever. On the same day, his wife of four years, Alice Lee, died of Bright’s disease, a severe kidney ailment. Only two days before her death, Alice Lee had given birth to the couple’s daughter, Alice.
The double tragedy devastated Roosevelt. He ordered those around him not to mention his wife’s name. Burdened by grief, he abandoned politics, left the infant Alice with his sister Bamie, and, at the end of 1884, struck out for the Dakota territories, where he lived as a rancher and worked as a sheriff for two years. When not engrossed in raising cattle or acting as the local lawman, Roosevelt found time to indulge his passion for reading and writing history. After a blizzard wiped out his prized herd of cattle in 1885, Roosevelt decided to return to eastern society. Once back in New York in 1886, he again took up politics and took over raising his precocious daughter, Alice, who later became a national celebrity.
After stints in the Spanish-American War and as governor of New York, Roosevelt won a spot as William McKinley’s vice-presidential running mate in 1900. After McKinley was asssinated at the beginning of his second term in 1901, Roosevelt moved into the White House, where he and his family would spend the next eight years.
Alice grew to admire and respect her father yet, according to her memoirs and friends, she harbored resentment toward him for having abandoned her as a baby. Not long after he married his second wife, Edith, in 1886, Alice found herself competing not only with her father’s political cronies and new wife for his attention, but also with her five half-siblings who arrived in quick succession. The high-spirited Alice perhaps took to scandalous behavior in retaliation.
The Roosevelt era coincided with a repressive time in women’s history, but the outspoken and independent Alice flouted acceptable behavior and reveled in the spotlight as first daughter. Alice’s activities as a young adult, such as smoking and staying out late with boys, irked her father, who nevertheless indulged her. In one instance when she repeatedly burst into a White House meeting, Roosevelt shrugged apologetically, I can either run the country or I can control Alice, but I cannot possibly do both.
After Roosevelt left office, Alice maintained a high profile in Washington society. She was banned from visiting the Taft White House after a voodoo doll of Mrs. Taft was found buried (by Alice) in the front lawn. President Wilson also banned her from White House society in retaliation for her making a lewd comment about him in public. Wilson was not her only target—she once remarked that her friend, Warren Harding’s vice president Calvin Coolidge, looked as though he’s been weaned on a pickle.
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Many lessons to take away from this brief biography.
Can you imagine, on Valentine’s day no less, while away on business, you get word that your Mother died, and upon returning home, your grief is doubled, when your soulmate, after laboriously delivering your first child, soon quickly afterwards also succumbs to death?
How would you handle that?
For any and all flaws some may hold for Teddy, his manner of dealing with such a double tragedy was to get busy with vigorous action.
Only to realize, just one short year later, again, more devastation, losing a herd of cattle.
What to do then?
Weaker men would have psychologically buckled under such mental strains and tests of will and endurance.
He changed course yet again, and started over, and went on to become one of the most influential men in history.
As the subsequent years progressed, his first born became a resentful problem child.
Yet he raised 5 more children, with a devotion and dedicated work ethic, and more actions and adventures than most men would dare to dream of doing.
Mistakes along the way? Certainly.
Yet he refused to remain on the sidelines, becoming an active, aggressive player in his game, this game of life.
Let his good experiences be a guide, for all men to strive for, amidst the challenges we all face.
Pour yourself into action, in great effort to try and serve, and improve the world around you.
Be an example, for others to follow, in word, ideas, and actions.
Well said sir
how the hell can you guys say something good about a man who abandons his motherless child?
True heart break…left the child in safe hands….
A woman would never abandon her child. But she also can’t love as much As a man, that baby replaces him
“Give yourself fully, to the adventure of today. Walk boldly along the path of Life, relying on Me, your ever present Companion.
You have every reason to be confident because My Presence accompanies you all the days of your life – and onward into eternity.
Do not give in to fear and worry, those robbers of abundant living. Trust Me enough to face problems as they come, rather than trying to anticipate them. Fix your eyes on Me, the Author and Perfector of your faith, and many difficulties on the road ahead will vanish before you reach them. Whenever you start to feel afraid, remember that I am holding you by your right hand. Nothing can separate you from My Presence!”
Copyright 2004
Sarah Young
Isaiah 41:13
For I am the Lord your God who takes hold of your right hand and says to you, Do not fear; I will help you.
Hebrews 12:2
…fixing our eyes on Jesus, the pioneer and Perfector of faith. For the joy set before him he endured the cross, scorning its shame, and sat down at the right hand of the throne of God
2 Corinthians 1: 3-4
Romans 8: 38-39
John 16: 33
Psalm 119: 76
History dot com hunting and pecking.
Teddy was fake and gay… From a very wealthy family
“Everything you are taught about Teddy is upside down to the truth. You are taught he was a
swashbuckling military man, but that was all a pose, as with Reagan and his horses. Roosevelt was
actually a sickly child with asthma, who later became a fat-ass. He was also a ghoul, since he liked to
collect dead animals as a child. He later became a big-game hunter, stuffing them and putting them on
his walls. Can you imagine shooting a beautiful leopard and stuffing him? Do you think any healthy
person would enjoy doing that? “Look at that gorgeous leopard, I think I will blow his brains out and
put his dead corpse over my mantle””
http://mileswmathis.com/TRox.pdf