Tuesday, February 27, 2018

"Princess Alice" Roosevelt

Alice Longworth c. 1919. Credit Ernest Bachrach
Here's a character I'd not come across before, but saw a mention of her and a few of her caustic quotes the other day: Alice Lee Roosevelt Longworth. I was curious to see her natal chart.

A little background from THIS WEBSITE

Alice Lee Roosevelt Longworth (1884-1980) was the only daughter of Alice Hathaway Lee Roosevelt and Theodore Roosevelt. She was born on February 12, 1884. Her mother and paternal grandmother died two days later. Her aunt, Anna Roosevelt, raised her until her father married Edith Kermit Carow in December 1886.

Alice grew up with her five half-siblings at Sagamore Hill, and in Washington and New York City as her father’s jobs dictated. An autodidact and a life-long voracious reader, Alice was intelligent, stubborn, and strong-willed. When Theodore Roosevelt became president in 1901, she made her debut in the White House. Shortly after, she entered on the international stage by christening a ship belonging to the German emperor.

Alice Roosevelt was a celebrity First Daughter known for antics like smoking on the White House roof, carrying a snake in her purse, and betting at horse races. Her parents swallowed their aggravation because the public clearly adored her. In 1905, she accompanied congressmen to Asia as a goodwill ambassador for the Administration, the first First Daughter to act in this capacity.

On February 17, 1906, Alice married Republican Representative Nicholas Longworth of Ohio at the White House. The two were leaders of Washington society, but their marriage was riven by his infidelity and alcoholism. They drifted apart politically in the 1912 election when Alice supported her father’s Progressive Party rather than her husband’s Republican Party............

Some quotes attributed to Alice:

My specialty is detached malevolence.

If you can't say something good about someone, sit right here by me.

I have a simple philosophy: Fill what's empty. Empty what's full.
Scratch where it itches.

I've always believed in the adage that the secret of eternal youth
is arrested development.



ASTROLOGY

Data from astro.com, with time of birth given a 'B' rating - from a biography.
Born in New York City on 12 February 1884 at 8.30 PM



From what I've read, Alice was something a rebel, so I was unsurprised to find her Sun in Aquarius, and if her time of birth is near to correct, Uranus was close to her ascendant angle, giving even more focus to her eccentric or rebellious side. Moon in Virgo - well, Virgo is known to be critical, and she apparently was no shrinking violet when it came to criticising others:

My father always wanted to be the corpse at every funeral, the bride at every wedding and the baby at every christening.

He [Calvin Coolidge] looks as though he's been weaned on a pickle.


And: At 90, Alice Roosevelt Longworth didn’t care who she offended in this mean, funny 1974 interview

There's lots more could be said about her chart, and lots of planetary patterns to be found, but my favourite has to be this Yod: The sextile between Uranus and Jupiter is linked via two quincunxes to her Aquarius Sun - how could she possibly have been anything other than a mildly eccentric, outspoken over-the-top rebel?


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