Hissing Cousins by Marc Peyser

Author:Marc Peyser
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Knopf Doubleday Publishing Group
Published: 2015-02-12T05:00:00+00:00

With similarly fawning reports being filed from all over the country, Alice felt secure enough of her place in the pecking order to really tweak the gossipmongers. She told Nick she wanted to name the baby Deborah—as in de (“of,” in French) Borah. He was not amused. “With all the gossip going around, why would you want to name her De-Borah?” he asked.13 They decided on Paulina, after Alice’s favorite saint.

Despite Nick’s comment, it’s hard to believe he didn’t have suspicions about Paulina’s paternity, given the Longworths’ long-running estrangement and the incessant rumors. (Best joke at the time: What do the Longworth baby and a brand new parquet floor have in common? Neither have a bit of Nick in them.) Or maybe he knew the truth and just didn’t care. Nick’s House colleagues gave him a heartfelt standing ovation when the Associated Press first flashed news of Paulina’s birth on February 14, 1925. True to the baby’s quasi-royal lineage, the entire country seemed thrilled about the “Valentine Baby,” as Paulina became known. “For every newspaper it was a front page story,” wrote The New Yorker, which added an observation that must have warmed Alice’s vindictive little heart: “No such romantic glamor spun about the children of the Wilson girls, even though those happy events took place in the White House itself, and the grandfather of the youngsters was President. The nation reserved its rejoicing for the delivery of an heir to the Princess Alice; for the daughter of T.R.”14

Paulina became a regular visitor to the House, sitting on Nick’s knee and smiling for the cameras while the proud papa beamed right back at her. Before her first birthday, Nick was elected Speaker of the House, his popularity boosted in part as the father of the country’s most famous infant. By 1926, the pundits speculated that Nick would run for president. They also speculated about where he got the idea: “In the nimble brain of that uncomformable woman, Alice Roosevelt Longworth. Every move Nick makes is colored Alice blue…[She] has the finesse of a fencer. Also of a boxer, billiardist, bridge player and every other art requiring tact, discrimination and judgment.”15 Even for wealthy women at the time, motherhood meant signing up for a lifetime of assignments and obligations tied specifically to the welfare of the family. Not for Alice Longworth. For her, motherhood merited a promotion to more important, less homebound pursuits. “It is no exaggeration to say that she shapes national policies, executive and legislative—not all policies, of course, but those she is interested in, and her interests are very wide.”16 In 1926, she was “virtually assured” to become the Republicans’ national committeewoman from Ohio—until she took her name out of contention. “I am convinced that the duties of national committeewoman are not in my line,” she said somewhat vaguely.17 In February 1927, she landed on the cover of Time magazine for no other accomplishment than being deemed “the most popular lady in the land.” She made news when

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