Alice Hathaway Lee Roosevelt was President Theodore Roosevelt’s first wife. She died shortly after giving birth to their daughter, Alice.
Early Life
Alice Hathaway Lee Roosevelt was born into a wealthy Massachusetts family in 1861. Her cheerful disposition earned her the nickname “Sunshine.” Alice met Theodore Roosevelt in 1878 while he was attending Harvard University. Of their first meeting, the future President wrote: “As long as I live, I shall never forget how sweetly she looked, and how prettily she greeted me.”
Roosevelt proposed marriage eight months later. However, Alice waited several months to accept. The couple was married in 1880 and honeymooned at the Roosevelt home at Oyster Bay. Alice and Theodore joined New York City’s elite social circle and toured Europe for five months in 1881. The next year, Theodore was elected to the New York Assembly. Alice joined her husband in Albany and got her first taste of New York state politics.
Pregnancy & Death
When Alice became pregnant in 1883, she went to live with her mother-in-law in New York City. Roosevelt was in Albany when Alice went into labor. After delivering a healthy baby girl, Roosevelt’s wife developed Bright’s Disease, a serious kidney condition. Roosevelt rushed to his wife’s bedside, battling severe weather to return home just before she died. Tragically, Roosevelt’s mother succumbed to typhoid fever just 11 hours earlier, and a double funeral was held at the Fifth Avenue Presbyterian Church in New York City.
One day after the funerals, the baby girl was christened and named Alice. Roosevelt was devastated by the death of his wife and rarely spoke about it. He wrote in a personal diary: “The light has gone out of my life.”
