Home
Search transcripts:    Advanced Search
Notable New     Yorkers
Select     Notable New Yorker

Kenneth ClarkKenneth Clark
Photo Gallery
Transcript

Session:         Page of 763

something, later.

But the interesting thing is that I knew that this girl, who was at that time 16 years old, obviously very bright, since she was in college at 16 --

Q:

That was her first year?

Clark:

She was a freshman when I was a senior. I knew that she was going to be a part of my life from that point on, and that nothing was going to interfere with that fact, including the star basketball player -- you know, the other competitors who thought that they had more to offer an attractive, and at that time, comparatively well-to-do young woman, whose father was a physician.

But I didn't care about all that, except that, after we started going steady, the fact that she was getting a substantial allowance, in the depth of the Depression, turned out to be quite an asset, because I wasn't getting any substantial allowance. And the interesting thing about Mamie was that every month, when her father sent her the $50 check, which was just mind-boggling, that anybody was getting $50 allowance in '35, '36, -- well, we would go out and have a steak dinner and go to the movies and what not, and she, as she is today, you know, rather matter of fact about this. We never had any Women's Lib problems. I mean, the fact that she had the money and I didn't, -- I finally convinced her that we were going to get married, and that was that.

This period was, to me, very exciting, enjoyable period of my life. No overt problems. Goals were set, and I moved toward





© 2006 Columbia University Libraries | Oral History Research Office | Rights and Permissions | Help