Joanna Sturm

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Joanna Sturm and Alice Roosevelt Longworth, her grandmother at Tricia Nixon's wedding in 1971
Joanna Sturm and Alice Roosevelt Longworth, her grandmother at Tricia Nixon's wedding in 1971

Joanna Mercedes Alessandra Sturm (born July 9, 1946), philanthropist, historian is a great-granddaughter of 26th U.S. President Theodore Roosevelt and the granddaughter of Alice Roosevelt Longworth. Sturm is the daughter of Alexander McCormick Sturm and his wife, Paulina Longworth.

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[edit] Family background

Joanna Mercedes Alessandra Sturm is the daughter of Alexander McCormick Sturm and his wife Paulina Longworth. She is the great-granddaughter of Theodore Roosevelt and the granddaughter of Nicholas Longworth and Alice Roosevelt Longworth.

In 1944, while helping her mother campaign against their distant cousin Franklin Delano Roosevelt, Paulina Longworth met Alexander McCormick Sturm, known as "Alex" to the family and "Sandy," to friends. They married on August 26, 1944, when Paulina was nineteen. Mrs. Longworth apparently did not believe Sturm to be good enough for her daughter. As Alice Longworth's suspicions were proven, Alexander Sturm became a chronic alcoholic, which made for a stormy marriage to her daughter. Paulina Sturm's already strained relationship with her mother was heightened by her marriage to Sturm.

[edit] Childhood

Paulina's only daughter, Joanna, was born in July 1946. In 1951, Joanna's father, Sandy Sturm, died of hepatitis. Widowhood plunged Paulina deeper into depression and drug dependency, and she sought spiritual guidance. In 1952, she joined Dorothy Day's Chrystie Street hospitality house on New York's Lower East Side. She also volunteered at several Washington, D.C. hospitals. Paulina and Joanna converted to Roman Catholicism in 1953.

In early 1957, Paulina succumbed to an overdose of sleeping pills. Though the autopsy noted her death as accidental, it was reported in the Washington Post that Paulina committed suicide (they later printed a retraction.) Alice Roosevelt Longworth maintained that Paulina's death was an accident brought on by the effects of alcohol and sleeping pills, pointing out that Paulina was a recently converted and very devout Catholic whose faith prohibited suicide. At Paulina's funeral, Vice President Richard Nixon was a pallbearer. Upon Paulina's death, her mother's cousin Eleanor Roosevelt sent condolences and the two women mended their broken relationship.

[edit] Sturm's grandmother, Alice Roosevelt Longworth, takes custody

Following Paulina's death, Alice won custody of Joanna, whom she raised. In contrast to her relationship with her daughter, Mrs. Longworth doted on her granddaughter and the two were very close.

In an article in American Heritage in 1969, Joanna was described as a "highly attractive and intellectual twenty-two-year-old" and was called "a notable contributor to Mrs. Longworth’s youthfulness." Whether discussing the famous Roman Catholic medieval theologian, St. Augustine or what the article described as the fine points of horsemanship, "... it is often the older woman who is the less inhibited and the more opinionated. The bonds between them are twin cables of devotion and a healthy respect for each other’s tongue. 'Mrs. L.,' says a friend, 'has been a wonderful father and mother to Joanna: mostly father.'" [1]

[edit] Education

After Joanna's mother's death, her grandmother, Alice honored Paulina's request that Joanna receive a Catholic education and enrolled her at Stone Ridge, the Sacred Heart day school in Bethesda, Maryland where she graduated in 1963. After graduation, Joanna attended Newton College of the Sacred Heart in Newton, Massachusetts and later did graduate work at Georgetown University.

[edit] Contributions to the Roosevelts of Oyster Bay history

In the past thirty years, at least twenty major books have been written about TR and his children. No fewer than six of them have been written about Alice Roosevelt. In virtually every major work on either of these Roosevelts, Sturm has been a significant cited resource.

Currently, Sturm remains one of the most valuable living historic resources on Alice Roosevelt Longworth. She was an eyewitness of the famous "Mrs. L" parties in Washington that included all the leading members of Washington, DC society as well as a succession of American presidents including Kennedy, Johnson, Nixon, and key political and business figures such as Henry Kissinger and others. Sturm assisted her grandmother with these social events.

In many ways, Sturm was the connecting link in Alice's life from the early 20th Century to American society of the last quarter of that same Century. She made significant contributions to both the last 25 years of Alice's life and the recording of Alice's story. Joanna was the main facilitator of Alice's famous interviews with Michael Teague over a period of more than five years that formed the basis of his book, Conversations with Mrs. L., a far more insightful autobiography than Alice's earlier book, Crowded Hours, published in the 1930s. With a grandchild in her twenties by her side, Alice could say confidently, "I've always believed in the adage that the secret to eternal youth is arrested development."

Sturm was also the chief facilitator of Alice's ability to finish these important historic interviews. By her constant support of her grandmother, she literally prolonged Alice's life into her mid-90s. Without Joanna, it is highly unlikely, given Alice's cancer, emphysema, and other health issue, that she would have lived nearly as long as she did. Joanna did all she could do to keep Alice mentally active, in order to complete the interviews, even pleading with friends to visit Alice when they were uncomfortable with her rapidly deteriorating condition.

Sturm has provided historical information and insights into the world of the Roosevelts of Hyde Park and Oyster Bay to virtually every Roosevelt biographer of the last thirty years, and she is credited by almost every professional TR biographer since 1970. In the interest of preserving Alice's recollections, Joanna, herself made two oral history recordings of her that are now in the Library of Congress.

Joanna's daughter (with the late Robert Hellman), Alice Roosevelt Sturm (born June 26, 1987), attended Sidwell Friends School and now attends Columbia University in the City of New York.

[edit] Philanthropic Activities

Joanna is a contributor to charitable organizations including conservation and other like-minded groups in keeping with her great grandfather's devotion to the preservation of natural resources. Causes as diverse as the International Crane Foundation (Wisconsin), endangered bats, the Dogwood Alliance, the Sierra Club, the Washington Zoo and many other organizations have benefited from her largesse. Sturm also contributes generous sums of money to the Democratic Party of which she is an active member.

[edit] Notes

  1. ^ Bingham, June "BEFORE THE COLORS FADE: Alice Roosevelt Longworth," American Heritage Magazine Vol 20 (February 1969) Online Edition. Retrieved on 2006-05-03.

[edit] See also

[edit] External links