Theodore Roosevelt has been a hero of mine for many years. There was almost nothing he could not do.

Theodore Roosevelt, circa 1898  

His life was a seemingly endless parade of accomplishments. He was a conservationist, a Rough Rider, a governor, a Bull Moose, and a police commissioner. He climbed the Matterhorn and navigated the Rio da Dúvida (River of Doubt), an unmapped tributary of the Amazon. And, of course, he served as the president of the United States.  His commitment to “the strenuous life”, his achievements, and his beautiful speech about “the man in the arena” have inspired millions.

A fragment of TR’s 1910 speech about the Man in the Arena

Roosevelt faced plenty of adversity: ill health as a child and the death of his beloved mother and first wife on the same day.  When he was struck and seriously wounded by an assassin’s bullet, Theodore Roosevelt refused to even delay the speech he planned to give that evening.

It seemed no one could stop him.  That is, no one except his daughter Alice Roosevelt.

Alice was the only child of Theodore and his first wife, Alice Hathaway Lee. Her mother died two days after her birth and she lived with her Aunt Anna (whom she called Auntie Bye) until her father remarried, this time to his childhood sweetheart, Edith Carow. The little girl, who was then about two years old, came to live with the couple.

When her father became the governor of New York, Alice’s behavior was already viewed as embarrassing and potentially dangerous to Theodore’s political career. Her father and stepmother were anxious to keep the headstrong girl out of sight.

When Alice learned they actually intended to send her to a conservative girl’s school, she made her first major power play. Knowing how important her father’s image was to him, she went right for his Achilles’ heel.  “If you send me I will humiliate you,” Alice told them. “I will do something that will shame you. I tell you I will.” And Theodore and Edith must have believed it because Alice did not go to that school.

Alice Lee Roosevelt

As determined and spirited as her father, Alice Roosevelt’s antics when her father was the president were legendary. She found a thousand ways to embarrass her father and stepmother, including smoking, playing poker, and driving recklessly without a chaperone.

When advisors and onlookers urged the president to get his strong-willed 19-year-old daughter under control, Theodore Roosevelt had to acknowledge that such a feat was beyond him. His memorable quote on that occasion was:

“I can do one of two things. I can be President of the United States or I can control Alice Roosevelt. I cannot possibly do both.”

Alice Roosevelt had won again.