In some respects, Theodore Roosevelt was a singularly lucky man. He succeeded to the presidency on McKinley’s assassination, and became the youngest president ever, at the age of 43. But luck had not always been on his side.

The young Roosevelt had conquered long bouts with ill health and became an advocate of the robust, outdoor life. Unfortunately, his philosophy did no good for his mother, Martha Bulloch Roosevelt, who died of typhoid at the relatively young age of 49. The lovely and vivacious “Mittie”, as she was known, was an obedient wife to her Union-supporting husband, Theodore Sr., while surreptitiously sending packages of food and medicine to southern troops during the Civil War. Mittie died at Teddy’s New York home on Feb.14, 1884, only hours after his first wife, Alice Lee.

Alice, who had delivered their first child, a daughter on Feb.12, succumbed to Bright’s Disease, a kidney condition that had gone unrecognized with her pregnancy. The double tragedy was marked in Roosevelt’s personal diary of February 14, 1884 with the simple words “the light has gone out of my life.”

Roosevelt retreated West to the ranching life for nearly three years, leaving the infant Alice Lee, to be cared for by his sister. He then married a childhood sweetheart, who had her hands full with the willful Alice, a rollicking teenager when her father entered the White House in 1901. Alice became known as a social revolutionary, smoking when it was considered unfeminine, driving a car, and in a time when fur boas were popular- wearing a real boa constrictor for shock value. Daughter Alice married Ohio congressman Nicholas Longworth in 1906, a union which produced one daughter, Paulina, on February 14, 1925, the 41st anniversary of her mother’s and grandmother’s death.