Part: 12         Session: 123456789101112131415161718192021222324252627282930313233343536         Page 862863864865866867868869870871872873874875876877878879880881882883884885886887888889890891892893894895896897898899900901902903904905 of 1143

I really dreaded to see her because I thought she probably would say nothing kind about me to the Johnsons. She was looking incredibly calm, serene and in abundant health although she'd complained that she was in very poor condition and had to go to Elizabeth Arden's.

The time passed and it was New Year's Eve and I had been told by Mrs. Johnson that her family's middle name was always Jefferson; her father and all her brothers always had the middle name of Jefferson. It was a traditional name in their family because of their admiration of Thomas Jefferson, so that when I found a Jefferson-autographed letter before Christmas, when I was looking for other letters for friends, I thought I'd give it to her because it represented a hero of her family. And also the letter was extremely amusing to me because it was written to a lady in Alexandria, Virginia, who had written to Jefferson in 1821, some years after he was President. This was a reply of Jefferson's to a letter asking for a political favor, and Jefferson carefully explained to the lady that he no longer had any connections with the federal government and that there would be no reason why anybody in the government would grant any request that he might make. I thought Mrs. Johnson would probably like to give this to her husband, because she probably, in the total confusion in what was going on and the amount of activity, wished that he was out of the federal government and no longer had any influence in it.

Well, she called me up on New Year's Day, and I told her about the letter, and she sounded delighted, and then the President