Alice Hathaway Lee-Roosevelt (July 29, 1861 in
Chestnut Hill, MassachusettsChestnut Hill is a suburban village located six miles west of downtown Boston, Massachusetts, United States. Like all Massachusetts villages, Chestnut Hill is not an incorporated municipal entity, but unlike most of them, it encompasses parts of three separate municipalities, each of which is in...
– February 14, 1884 in Manhattan, New York) was the first wife of
Theodore RooseveltTheodore Roosevelt was the 26th President of the United States. He is well remembered for his energetic persona, his range of interests and achievements, his model of masculinity, and his "cowboy" image. He was a leader of the Republican Party and founder of the short-lived Bull Moose Party...
. They had one child,
Alice Lee RooseveltAlice Lee Roosevelt Longworth was the oldest child of Theodore Roosevelt, the 26th President of the United States. She was the only child of Roosevelt and his first wife, Alice Hathaway Lee....
.
Born in
Chestnut Hill, MassachusettsChestnut Hill is a suburban village located six miles west of downtown Boston, Massachusetts, United States. Like all Massachusetts villages, Chestnut Hill is not an incorporated municipal entity, but unlike most of them, it encompasses parts of three separate municipalities, each of which is in...
, the daughter of George Cabot Lee, a prominent banker, and Caroline Haskell-Lee, Alice was tall (5'7"), charming, pretty, and intelligent.
She met Theodore "T.R." Roosevelt on October 18, 1878 at the home of her next-door neighbors, the Saltonstalls; T.R.
Alice Hathaway Lee-Roosevelt (July 29, 1861 in
Chestnut Hill, MassachusettsChestnut Hill is a suburban village located six miles west of downtown Boston, Massachusetts, United States. Like all Massachusetts villages, Chestnut Hill is not an incorporated municipal entity, but unlike most of them, it encompasses parts of three separate municipalities, each of which is in...
– February 14, 1884 in Manhattan, New York) was the first wife of
Theodore RooseveltTheodore Roosevelt was the 26th President of the United States. He is well remembered for his energetic persona, his range of interests and achievements, his model of masculinity, and his "cowboy" image. He was a leader of the Republican Party and founder of the short-lived Bull Moose Party...
. They had one child,
Alice Lee RooseveltAlice Lee Roosevelt Longworth was the oldest child of Theodore Roosevelt, the 26th President of the United States. She was the only child of Roosevelt and his first wife, Alice Hathaway Lee....
.
Born in
Chestnut Hill, MassachusettsChestnut Hill is a suburban village located six miles west of downtown Boston, Massachusetts, United States. Like all Massachusetts villages, Chestnut Hill is not an incorporated municipal entity, but unlike most of them, it encompasses parts of three separate municipalities, each of which is in...
, the daughter of George Cabot Lee, a prominent banker, and Caroline Haskell-Lee, Alice was tall (5'7"), charming, pretty, and intelligent.
She met Theodore "T.R." Roosevelt on October 18, 1878 at the home of her next-door neighbors, the Saltonstalls; T.R. was a classmate of young Richard Saltonstall at
Harvard UniversityHarvard University is a private university located in Cambridge, Massachusetts and a member of the Ivy League. Founded in 1636 by the colonial Massachusetts legislature, Harvard is the oldest institution of higher learning in the United States and currently comprises ten separate academic units...
. Of their first encounter, he would write, "As long as I live, I shall never forget how sweetly she looked, and how prettily she greeted me."
For young T.R. it was "love at first sight." By
ThanksgivingThanksgiving may refer to:*Thanksgiving , the holiday on the fourth Thursday in November.*Thanksgiving , the holiday on the second Monday in October.*Thanksgiving...
(only a few weeks after meeting her), he had decided Alice was to be his wife; the following June he proposed. She put T.R. off however, taking another six months before saying "yes".
On February 13, 1880, an ecstatic Roosevelt recorded in his diary his great joy that the woman of his dreams, whom he had actively courted for more than a year, had finally accepted his proposal of marriage. Knowing that his love was reciprocated and that he could now "hold her in my arms and kiss her and caress her and love her as much as I choose" gave the enraptured young Roosevelt enormous satisfaction. They announced their engagement on February 14, 1880.
Roosevelt, aged 22, married Alice Lee, aged 19, on October 27, 1880 (his 22nd birthday), at the
UnitarianThe name Unitarian can refer to:* Members of the liberal Unitarian movement whose congregations in Britain meet under the auspices of the General Assembly of Unitarian and Free Christian Churches or the umbrella organisation for Unitarian, Free Christian and other liberal religious congregations.*...
Church in
Brookline, MassachusettsBrookline is a town in Norfolk County, Massachusetts, United States, which borders on the cities of Boston and Newton. As of the 2000 census, the population of the town was 57,107.-Etymology:...
. Among the guests at their wedding, and at the reception in the home of the bride's parents, was Edith Carow, later to become Roosevelt's second wife. The couple honeymooned two weeks at the Roosevelt home in
Oyster Bay, New YorkOyster Bay is the name of a hamlet and census-designated place on the North Shore of Long Island in Nassau County in the state of New York, United States...
.
Tragically, Mrs. Roosevelt died in New York on February 14, 1884, on the fourth anniversary of their engagement, from
Bright's diseaseBright's disease is a historical classification of kidney diseases that would be described in modern medicine as acute or chronic nephritis. The term is no longer used, as diseases are now classified according to their more fully understood causes....
, and childbirth complications. She was 22 years old. (On the same day and in the same house, Roosevelt's mother, Martha "Mittie" Bulloch-Roosevelt also died, of typhoid fever). T.R. was so distraught by Alice's death that except for a diary entry ("The light has gone out of my life"). In a short privately published tribute to Alice, Roosevelt wrote:
While he made some oblique references to Alice in the months after her passing, Roosevelt never spoke of her publicly again. He refused to have her name mentioned in his presence. When asked about her mother by Alice's daughter and namesake, she was referred to Roosevelt's sister, Ana/Bye/Bamie for information and learned details of her mother only from her aunt. So final was this decision to try to put Alice's loss out of his life, that she is not even mentioned by name in his autobiography.
The Roosevelts had one daughter:
- Alice Roosevelt Longworth
Alice Lee Roosevelt Longworth was the oldest child of Theodore Roosevelt, the 26th President of the United States. She was the only child of Roosevelt and his first wife, Alice Hathaway Lee....
(1884-1980). According to a number of historians, Roosevelt's need to leave behind or suppress his experiences with his first wife were a source of deep resentment by his daughter. She was unable to get him to talk about her mother in any meaningful way. Her rebellious life finds some explanation in this sad aspect of her relationship with her father.
In the immediate aftermath of his wife's death, Theodore turned the care of their newly-born infant daughter to his elder sister Anna, also known as
BamieAnna Roosevelt Cowles was the older sister of United States President Theodore Roosevelt and the aunt of Eleanor Roosevelt. Her childhood nickname was Bamie, a derivative of bambina, but as an adult, her family began calling her "Bye" because of her tremendous on-the-go energy -...
, and embarked on a journey of personal discovery to his ranch in the
BadlandsA badlands is a type of arid terrain where softer sedimentary rocks and clay-rich soils have been extensively eroded by wind and water. It can resemble malpaís, a terrain of volcanic rock. Canyons, ravines, gullies, hoodoos and other such geological forms are common in badlands. They are often...
of
North DakotaNorth Dakota is a state located in the Midwestern region of the United States of America; on the Canadian border halfway between the Pacific and Atlantic oceans. North Dakota is the 19th largest state by area in the U.S.; it is the 3
rd least populous, with just over 641,481 residents as...
. From this interlude Roosevelt would emerge a renewed man and would go on to the Presidency of the United States in 1901.
Alice Hathaway Roosevelt was buried in Green-Wood Cemetery in Brooklyn, New York, next to her mother-in-law.
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