Alice Hathaway Roosevelt (; July 29, 1861 – February 14, 1884) was an American socialite and the first wife of President Theodore Roosevelt. Two days after giving birth to their only child, she died from undiagnosed Bright's disease. Early life Alice Hathaway Lee was born on July 29, 1861 in Chestnut Hill, Massachusetts, to banker George Cabot Lee and Caroline Watts Haskell. Her younger brother was banker George Cabot Lee Jr. and her grandfather was John Clarke Lee, founder of Lee, Higginson & Co. Standing 5'6", she had "blue-gray eyes and long, wavy golden hair" and was described as strikingly beautiful as well as charming. Her family and friends called her "Sunshine" because of her cheerful disposition. Courtship and marriage Lee met Theodore "T.R." Roosevelt, Jr. on October 18, 1878, at the home of her relatives and next-door neighbors, the Saltonstalls. At Harvard University, Roosevelt was a classmate of her cousin, Richard Middlecott "Dick" Saltonstall. Later writing of their first encounter, Roosevelt said, "As long as I live, I shall never forget how sweetly she looked, and how prettily she greeted me." Lee received a proposal of marriage from Roosevelt in June 1879 but waited eight months before accepting. Their engagement was announced on February 14, 1880. At age 19, Lee married Roosevelt on October 27, 1880, (T.R.'s 22nd birthday) at the Unitarian Church in Brookline, Massachusetts. The couple's "proper" honeymoon was delayed until the following summer due to her new husband's acceptance into Columbia Law School. After spending the first two weeks of their marriage at the Roosevelt family summer rental in Oyster Bay known as "Tranquility," the couple went to live with Theodore's widowed mother, Martha Stewart "Mittie" Bulloch. Along with her new husband, Roosevelt participated in the social world of elite New York and toured Europe for five months in 1881. In October 1882 Roosevelt moved to her husband's Albany boardinghouse and learned about New York state politics. When she became pregnant in the summer of 1883, the Roosevelts planned for a large family and bought land near Tranquility for a large home. She returned to live with her mother-in-law in New York City later that fall. Roosevelt gave birth to the couple's daughter at 8:30 pm on February 12, 1884; the child was named Alice Lee Roosevelt. Her husband, then a member of the New York State Assembly, was in Albany attending to business on the