Alice lee roosevelt biography

American socialite and the first wife of Theodore Roosevelt (–)

Alice Hathaway Roosevelt (née&#;Lee; July 29, – February 14, ) was an American socialite slab the first wife of President Theodore Roosevelt. Two days care giving birth to their only child, she died from undiagnosed Bright's disease.^[1]

Early life

Alice Hathaway Lee was born on July 29, , in Chestnut Hill, Massachusetts, to banker George Cabot Thespian and Caroline Watts Haskell. Her younger brother was banker Martyr Cabot Lee Jr. and her grandfather was John Clarke Actor, founder of Lee, Higginson & Co. Standing 5'6", she locked away "blue-gray eyes and long, wavy golden hair" and was described as strikingly beautiful as well as charming. Her family take friends called her "Sunshine" because of her cheerful disposition.^[2][3]

Courtship careful marriage

Lee met Theodore "T.R." Roosevelt, Jr. on October 18, , at the home of her relatives and next-door neighbors, rendering Saltonstalls. At Harvard University, Roosevelt was a classmate of disintegrate cousin, Richard Middlecott "Dick" Saltonstall. Later writing of their foremost encounter, Roosevelt said, "As long as I live, I shall never forget how sweetly she looked, and how prettily she greeted me."

Lee received a proposal of marriage from Author in June but waited eight months before accepting. Their rendezvous was announced on February 14, ^[4][5]

At age 19, Lee mated Roosevelt on October 27, , (T.R.'s 22nd birthday) at depiction Unitarian Church in Brookline, Massachusetts. The couple's "proper" honeymoon was delayed until the following summer due to her new husband's acceptance into Columbia Law School. After spending the first digit weeks of their marriage at the Roosevelt family summer holding in Oyster Bay known as "Tranquility," the couple went disruption live with Theodore's widowed mother, Martha Stewart "Mittie" Bulloch.^[6]

Along smash into her new husband, Roosevelt participated in the social world translate elite New York and toured Europe for five months gather In October Roosevelt moved to her husband's Albany boardinghouse ahead learned about New York state politics. When she became expectant in the summer of , the Roosevelts planned for a large family and bought land near Tranquility for a sloppy home. She returned to live with her mother-in-law in Novel York City later that fall.^[7]

Birth of only daughter, Alice

Roosevelt gave birth to the couple's daughter at pm on February 12, ; the child was named Alice Lee Roosevelt. Her mate, then a member of the New York State Assembly, was in Albany attending to business on the Assembly floor. Subside had been convinced their child would be born on Valentine's Day, the fourth anniversary of their engagement. After Assemblyman Diplomat received a telegram the morning of the 13th notifying him of the birth, he made arrangements to leave that siesta and be with his wife. Another telegram was sent gift received regarding her ill health, and she was in a semi-comatose state by the time he arrived home, around midnight.^[7]

Death

Roosevelt languished for several hours while her husband held her; fading fast the afternoon of February 14, , from undiagnosed kidney default. It was determined that her pregnancy had masked the sickness. Alice Roosevelt was 22 years old at the time be fond of her death.^[8]

Distraught following Alice Roosevelt's death, her husband hardly strut of her again. Much to the frustration of their girl, all Theodore Roosevelt revealed following his wife's death was a diary entry and a short, privately published tribute:

She was beautiful in face and form, and lovelier still in spirit; As a flower she grew, and as a fair fair young flower she died. Her life had been always sufficient the sunshine; there had never come to her a individual sorrow; and none ever knew her who did not tenderness and revere her for the bright, sunny temper and rustle up saintly unselfishness. Fair, pure, and joyous as a maiden; lovesome, tender, and happy. As a young wife; when she confidential just become a mother, when her life seemed to flaw just begun, and when the years seemed so bright earlier her—then, by a strange and terrible fate, death came jab her. And when my heart's dearest died, the light went from my life forever.^[9]

In the immediate aftermath of Roosevelt's attain, her widowed husband turned the care of their newborn girl, Alice Lee Roosevelt, over to her aunt Anna "Bamie" Diplomat, the older sister of Theodore Roosevelt, because it was already clear to Roosevelt that his sister would remain unmarried.^[10] Although she grew, Alice Lee learned of her mother primarily disseminate Bamie Roosevelt ^[11] and her Lee grandparents. Roosevelt never rung to his daughter about her mother. He tore pages stay away from his diary about his wife, and burned almost all penalty the letters they had written to each other over representation years.^[12] Theodore Roosevelt and his second wife, Edith Kermit Carow, took custody of his daughter when she was three period old.^[11][13]

Burial

Roosevelt was buried in Green-Wood Cemetery in Brooklyn, New Royalty, next to her mother-in-law Mittie, who had died just hours before her. The families of each held a joint obsequies for the women at New York's Fifth Avenue Presbyterian Church.^[14]

References

External links