Alice and Emily Spinach
Alice Roosevelt lived to 96 and spent most of her life in Washington D.C. She was known as the 2nd Washington Monument. While all the Roosevelt children were spirited Alice was the most outlandish
Alice became famous credited with the remark Gov. Thomas E. Dewey, running against Truman, looked like that “little man at the top of a wedding cake.” Later she admitted she overheard the remark in her dentist's office.
When she was 17 years old there's a story Alice carried a green garter snake in her purse along with a copy of the Constitution. It was said there were times she'd let the snake loose during dinners at the White House just to watch the guests scramble. One time Quentin let 4 snakes loose on the table slithering between the silverware and the China.
There's a report one time Alice wore Emily around her arm as a “Fashion Statement.” Emily Spinach got her name because she was "as green as spinach and as thin as her Aunt Emily.”
Eventually its said the snake met a mysterious end like a character from an Agatha Christie novel. In some circles it was rumored Emily Spinach was murdered by one of the other Roosevelt children.
However, in her book “Crowded Hours” published in 1933 Alice wrote she was staying out of town with friends when Emily mysteriously died. Alice said she suspected foul play because the friends she was staying with were extremely uncomfortable with the snake. All in all its not every day the friends you're staying with kill your pet, but it does eliminate the inside job business carried out by a brother or sister or White House mob. Unlike an Agatha Christie novel there was no Hercule Poirot to bring the culprit to justice and the crime has been left unsolved.
There aren’t any photographs of Alice with Emily and there aren't any photographs of Emily, but there are newspaper articles that refer to her pet snake.
Since garter snakes are known to give off a foul odor when threatened and because very few banquets in the State Dinning Room improve with a snake on the table so maybe the story is a little bit of truth, with a pinch of fiction, a double shot of exaggeration all followed by a chaser of “Give Me a Break.”
Park Ranger Bethany Cecere remembered she had a garter snake as a kid that was done in by her cat. The Roosevelt's had two cats. Maybe we should add a feline to the list of unidentified suspects.
Artist: Christian Slade