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Mary LaskerMary Lasker
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from Europe. One thing led to another, and finally everything was in order, and the names were more or less as Feldman thought they should be. He had taken them up to the President and assured me they would be announced the last week of November.

Well, the death of the President eliminated that.

So, I went to see President Johnson the first week of his Administration and talked to him about this. He said to me, “See Abe Fortis about it.” I went to see Abe Fortis, who was deeply sympathetic to the idea that such a commission should be appointed, who sent word to the President that he was sympathetic, and also to Mike Feldman saying that he thought it was something that should be pushed ahead.

Then came the matter of who should be on the commission, and the President had some question about the names. I remember that when I was in California on Washington's Birthday in '64 the President and Mrs. Johnson were staying in a house in Palm Springs and I drove over to see them with some additional suggestions of names for this commission. However, the President's mind wasn't particularly on the subject at that moment.

I went to Washington and he said, “I think you should have the names of more women for the commission. Get me more names of women. This was on February 14th. He finally called me up in New York early in March and said, “Now, where are the names of the women you're going to appoint?” and I suggested Mrs. Arthur Trimm, who's a doctor at Memorial, a research doctor, and Jane Wright of Bellevue, who's a Negress and a very





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