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power, that she could make you a promise and it would be fulfilled. She certainly basked in that. She basked in the fact that the great and powerful of the State of New York, no matter who they were, called her up first. She arranged that. She let an occasional person stub his toe on bringing up a matter with the Governor. Then when he came to see her, he would say, “This is terrible. The Governor said he wouldn't do this. I couldn't get him to do it.” She would smile in a supercilious way, go on with her knitting - literally, because she of ten knit - and say, “Well, it's too bad. I'm sorry. You should have seen me first, I think I could have arranged it.” She trained them one by one to see her first. The result was that they did see her first, not only the public officials, but the newspaper editors. She had them all dependent upon her for news, for information, for advice and for introducing their idea for the Governor. She was as good as her word. She really could get things done.

Her influence was always excellent. I think that those of us who worked with her when Smith was Governor had great respect for her judgment about the substance of matters that we wanted the Governor to take up. She had been responsible for the invention of the Reconstruction Commission in New York and had sold that to the Governor.