Alice Roosevelt Longworth - Father's Presidency

Father's Presidency

When her father took office in 1901 following the assassination of President William McKinley in Buffalo (an event that she greeted with "sheer rapture"), Longworth became an instant celebrity and fashion icon at age 17. While proud of her father's accomplishments, she also was painfully aware that his new duties would give her significantly less of his time even as she longed for more of his attention. She 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. 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.

In 1905, Longworth, along with her father's Secretary of War, William Howard Taft, led the so-called "Imperial Cruise" to Japan, Hawaii, China, the Philippines, and Korea. It was the largest diplomatic mission in U.S. history, composed of 23 U.S. Congressmen (including her future husband Nicholas Longworth), seven senators, and other diplomats and officials. She made headlines wherever she went, being photographed with the Emperor Meiji of the Empire of Japan and the Empress Dowager Cixi of Qing Dynasty China, as well as attending sumo wrestling matches.

During the cruise to Japan, she made a splash by jumping into the ship's pool fully clothed, and coaxed a congressman to join her in the water. (Years later Bobby Kennedy would chide Longworth about the incident, saying it was outrageous for the time, to which the by-then-octogenarian Longworth replied that it would only have been outrageous had she removed her clothes. In her autobiography, Crowded Hours, Longworth 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.) The press dubbed Longworth's part in this government-sponsored trip to Asia "Alice in Plunder Land". She brought back enough silk from China for a lifetime of beautiful dresses and would wear a beautiful strand of costly pearls given to her by the Cuban government for the rest of her life. This diplomatic junket and Longworth's ability to keep the press at bay by becoming the center of attention contributed to her father's successful conclusion of the Treaty of Portsmouth in 1905 that ended the Russo-Japanese War, which eventually made her father the first American Nobel Peace Prize winner in history.

Once, a White House visitor commented on Longworth's frequent interruptions to the Oval Office, often because of her political advice. The exhausted president commented to his friend, author Owen Wister, after the third interruption to their conversation and after threatening to throw Longworth 'out the window', "I can either run the country or I can attend to Alice, but I cannot possibly do both."

Longworth was the center of attention in the social context of her father's presidency, and she thrived on the attention, even as she chafed on some of the restrictions such attention placed on her. In this, she 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."

Longworth was a medal awarder at the 1904 Olympics in St. Louis.