She smoked cigarettes, raced automobiles, kept a pet snake named Emily Spinach, and delighted in scandalizing Washington society. Alice Roosevelt Longworth, the eldest daughter of President Theodore, was by nature rebellious. So much so that her father once admitted, “I can be President of the United States, or I can control Alice. I cannot possibly do both.”

Yet Alice would become one of Washington’s most enduring presences — a sharp-tongued observer who challenged status quos and delighted in saying, “If you haven't got anything nice to say about anybody come sit next to me.”

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