Mame, Miss Young, Mr. Hoover, Tom Pen, Mr. Hay, Mr. Loeb, Mr. Craig, Belle Hagner, Pinckney, and many of the other staff members mentioned in this book are real, though I have imagined parts of their characters and all, or nearly all, of their conversations. Thomas Pendel, who retired shortly after the time I have covered in this book, wrote a book about his White House experiences in which he spoke lovingly of Tad Lincoln and the young Roosevelts. Mr. Hoover is well known for a book he wrote upon his retirement in 1933, and for his remark that “a timid person had no place” in the White House while the Roosevelts were living there.
Ethel herself recalled how, on a dare from Alice, she crawled under the table at a White House dinner. Alice really did charm congressmen into giving the money to add a dance floor to the White House; it was installed in the East Room, but, tragically, from her point of view, not until after her debut.
Some famous pranks, such as Quentin's sneaking Algonquin up the White House elevator into Archie's bedroom, and pets, such as Archie's badger, Josiah, took place or lived outside the time frame of this book. Ethel did eventually get a horse of her own, which she named Fidelity.
The young Roosevelts enjoyed the White House, but they and their mother always feared for the president's safety—much more than did the president himself. The White House police really did instruct the children to be on guard and to put themselves between their father and any perceived threat.
Theodore Roosevelt loved his children very much; he also expected a great deal from them, and they all worked hard to live up to his example. Ted, Kermit, and Archie served in World War I with distinction; Quentin died there, when the plane he was piloting was shot down over France. The remaining boys also served in World War II— Ted was the oldest soldier to land on the beaches of Normandy at D-Day. Both Ted and Kermit died during the war, though not in battle.
Of Roosevelt's daughters, Alice (always called Sister by her family) garnered the lion's share of national attention. Over and over throughout his presidency she was featured in newspapers and magazines; she was called Princess Alice, and the color of a dress she wore on one state occasion was christened Alice Blue. She served as her father's emissary on trips to Puerto Rico and the Far East, and while he was still president she married Nick Longworth, a congressman from Ohio who later became speaker of the House. Alice lived out her long life in Washington; she dined with every president through Ronald Reagan before she died in 1980.
At one time or another Alice seems to have bickered with everyone in her large family—except Ethel. In the voice-over for a video tour of Sagamore Hill that Ethel made shortly before she died, she speaks lovingly of going into Alice's bedroom, inhaling the fragrance of her perfume, and touching the glass bottles on her dressing table. They seem to have always been close.
Ethel left the National Cathedral School when she was fifteen. During the last years of her father's presidency, she helped her mother run the household and enjoyed herself much as Alice had (though less controversially). She rode, hunted, and went to parties and dances. Like her sister, she made her debut at the White House. After her father left office she spent several years helping her mother run Sagamore and accompanying her parents on trips to Europe, which she greatly enjoyed.
In 1913 Ethel married a surgeon named Richard Derby. When World War I broke out he went to France to serve in a hospital, and she went with him to serve as a nurse. She was very proud of her lifelong work with the American Red Cross.
Ethel and her husband had four children. In later years, after the deaths of her parents, she worked hard to see Sagamore Hill restored and opened to the public as a National Historic Site. Ethel Roosevelt Derby died in 1977, but thanks to her efforts, visitors from all over the world can still get a glimpse of the life and family she loved.
Bishop Joseph Bucklin ed. Theodore Roosevelt's Letters to His Children Scribner's New York 1919
Derby Ethel Roosevelt Kirkpatrick Sidney My Father the President A documentary video of Sagamore Hill narrated by Ethel Roosevelt Derby.
Donn Linda The Roosevelt Cousins: Growing Up Together, 1882–1924 Alfred A. Knopf New York 2001
Hoover Irwin Hood Forty-two Years in the White House Houghton Mifflin Boston 1934
Lewis Mary Key Polished Corners: A History of the National Cathedral School for Girls Mount Saint Alban 1971 Washington, D. C.
Library of Congress. Online resources, including photographs of Ethel Roosevelt's White House bedroom and various White House rooms before the 1902 renovation. www.loc.gov.
Longworth Alice Roosevelt Crowded Hours Scribner's New York 1933
Kerr Joan Paterson ed. A Bully Father: Theodore Roosevelt's Letters to His Children Random House New York 1995
Morison Elting ed. The Letters of Theodore Roosevelt. Vol. 3 Harvard University Press Cambridge 1951
Morris Edmund The Rise of Theodore Roosevelt Random House Rev. ed. New York 2001
Morris Edmund Theodore Rex Random House New York 2001
Morris Sylvia Jukes Edith Kermit Roosevelt Coward, McCann & Geoghegan New York 1980
Murphy Eloise Cronin Theodore Roosevelt's Night Ride to the Presidency Adirondack Museum Blue Lake, New York 1977
National Cathedral School for Girls Yearbooks from 1900–1901, 1901–1902, 1902–1903.
Pendel Thomas Thirty-six Years in the White House Neale Publishing Company Washington, D.C. 1902
Roosevelt Eleanor B. Day Before Yesterday Doubleday Garden City, New York 1959
Roosevelt Theodore Autobiography Scribner's New York 1913
Roosevelt Theodore Roosevelt's Theodore Diaries of Boyhood and Youth Scribner's New York 1928
Sagamore Hill National Historic Site National Park Service.
Teague Michael Mrs. L.: Conversations with Alice Roosevelt Long-worth Doubleday Garden City, New York 1981
Leonard Barry ed. The White House: An Historic Guide White House Historical Association, 21st edition Washington, D.C. 2001
Copyright © 2004 by Kimberly Brubaker Bradley
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