wolfpangs ([personal profile] wolfpangs) wrote2009-04-02 04:28 pm

Go home and tell your kids to be free.

This morning I had to go to a presentation by a Teddy Roosevelt impersonator. It was enjoyable, but what I really liked was hearing about his oldest daughter, Alice. Y'all? Alice Roosevelt was the business.


FIERCE.

From the wiki (and other places): 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.

To Senator Joseph McCarthy, who had casually asked her "How are you, Alice?" she stated that the garbage men, taxi drivers and street sweepers in her neighborhood could call her by her first name, but that he could call her "Mrs. Longworth."

"I valued my independence from an early age and was always something of a individualist," she says. "Well, a show-off anyway."

[identity profile] readykatego.livejournal.com 2009-04-02 09:34 pm (UTC)(link)
I totally love Alice Longworth - my favorite quote of hers is "If you haven't got anything nice to say about anybody, come sit next to me." She really was fierce.

[identity profile] soalivesofree.livejournal.com 2009-04-04 11:27 pm (UTC)(link)
I was just coming to mention that. For that reason alone, she is my most favorite First Child ever. Although Amy Carter, and I suspect the Obama daughters, might give her a run for her money.