Frances Benjamin Johnston on Wikimedia

If you think that Teddy Roosevelt was one of the wildest characters to call the White House home, then you're in for a surprise. T. R. wasn't even the most rambunctious Roosevelt to roost at 1600 Pennsylvania Ave. This is the story of Alice Lee Roosevelt Longworth, America's princess and the terror of Pennsylvania Avenue.

Relationships Strained

Pach Brothers on Wikimedia

Alice's life was shocking from the moment she entered this earth. Two days after her birth, Alice's grandmother and her mother—also named Alice—both succumbed to disease. Distraught, Theodore referred to his daughter not by her name, but as "Baby Lee", a nickname she adopted later in life.

 While Theodore loved his daughter dearly, she was also a reminder of the family he'd lost, which led to him being emotionally distant in the first few years of Alice's life, leaving her in the care of a headstrong maiden aunt. These formative years shaped Alice's life. When her father remarried, Alice immediately butted heads with her new stepmother.

Alice inherited her father's temperament as well as his trademark wit. When threatened with conservative boarding school, Alice threatened her father back, saying she would "humiliate" him. Needless to say, she did not end up attending the school.

First Daughter

Frances Benjamin Johnston / Adam Cuerden on Wikimedia

Alice's life changed dramatically in 1901 following the assassination of William McKinley. Her father was now President. Alice and her five half-siblings moved into the White House and were seen as representatives of the American people.

At 17 years old, witty and beautiful, Alice was the life of the party. One of the first major social events her father hosted after becoming president was Alice's debutante ball on January 3, 1902. Alice wore a blue-gray gown that matched her eyes; the shade became known as "Alice blue", appearing in advertisements and even Broadway musicals.

Almost immediately, the public fell in love with "Princess Alice". Her rowdy behavior and willingness to participate in her younger siblings' schemes made her all the more endearing. Here are some highlights of Alice's antics:

• rampaged through hallways on stilts
• smoked cigarettes on the roof after Theodore forbade her from smoking in his mouse
• kept a garter snake named Emily Spinach—after a spinster aunt and its' color—in her purse and would periodically release it during dinner
• left tacks on people's chairs
• jumped fully clothed into a pool
• buried a voodoo doll of Nellie Taft in the White House yard (which led to her being subsequently banned).

In short, is it any wonder that Theodore famously said “I can either run the country or I can attend to Alice, but I cannot possibly do both?

From Wild Child To Wife

Harris & Ewing, photographer on Wikimedia

Alice didn't mellow out with age either, though she did serve as a power-broker for her father across Asia and the Caribbean. Everywhere she went, people fell in love with her—and not just the public. On one of these trips, Alice got the eye of Ohio congressman Nicholas Longworth III.

Nicholas was 14 years Alice's senior with a reputation as a playboy. Nonetheless, the two were married in February 1906. Alice borrowed a sword from a military aid to cut the wedding cake.

Unfortunately, the union wasn't always a happy one. In addition to infidelity on both sides, the pair had political differences. Alice's support of her father's Bull Moose party in 1912 caused her husband to lose his seat in Congress (though he won it back in 1915). They had a daughter, Paulina "Borah" Longworth, whose nickname was derived from her real father, Senator William Borah.

Alice outlived both of her parents, her husband, and her only child. She met with 16 Presidents, both past and sitting and continued entertaining well into her 80s. When she passed in 1980, at the age of 96, she was eulogized as "The other Washington Monument".