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

Frances PerkinsFrances Perkins
Photo Gallery
Transcript

Part:         Session:         Page of 654

Mansion. They gave a great many formal gubernatorial dinners and I was often asked to stay the night because I lived in the City of New York. I could always go down on the midnight train, but it was simpler to stay. I would spend the next day in the Albany office. Then there were times when legislation was on and there were budget preparations. I'd often be asked to stay then.

I don't think this indicated that I was closer to the Roosevelts than most people. Certainly the Frederick Greenes were close and intimate. The Matthias Nicolls were close and intimate. They lived in Albany so there wasn't any particular reason for asking them to spend the night.

Some of the other people in the government were Dr. Thomas Parran, who preceded Nicoll, Dr. Frederick W. Parsons who was head of the State Hospital System, Frank P. Graves who was the head of the Education Department, and William Gorham Rice, head of the Civil Service Commission. Most of those people actually lived in Albany and it wouldn't be natural for them to be asked to spend the night because they went home when dinner was over and after a conference.

It gave me unusual opportunities to get better acquainted in an informal way than you would otherwise with





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