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Mary LaskerMary Lasker
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day from her place in Hyde Park, and I recall urging her to go to the Convention. She had not thought about going to the Democratic Convention in Chicago. Anna Hoffman and I both urged her strongly to go, and actually I think it was really our urging that persuaded her. I think that her support at the Convention helped Stevenson immensely because Truman was against him and for Harriman, as you recall.

As I returned to my farm and was so tired and caught cold, I got the worst backache I can ever recall. It was mainly a form of what is called lumbago, but it was extremely severe and I was doubled up, unable to stand upright. I stayed in bed about a week and then I finally got to town but it didn't leave me here, and I was really in agony. Numerous doctors came to see me, including Dr. Howard Rusk, all of whom gave different bits of advice, and finally a friend came and suggested that I take some Miltown. Nobody else had suggested it. I took three tablets which seemed to put me into a deep sleep, and after 10 days I began to recover from this agonising backache. But actually it took place during the Democratic Convention in Chicago, and I was so ill that I was unable to go.

At that convention, which I watched on television a great deal of the time with Bill Donovan, who came to see me nearly everyday, Truman made a terrific bid for the nomination of Harriman and was very unkind about Stevenson. But Mrs. Roosevelt rallied the liberal forces of labor and others for Stevenson, and he was nominated.





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