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However, he began to get sicker and sicker. He didn't last too, too long in the Cabinet, and he was sick a good part of that time, either in Bethesda or in the Mayo Clinic in Minnesota. Averell Harriman was helping him out and was carrying the load for him from time to time. Harry was sick a great deal and one realized that he wasn't able to be the whirlwind in that post that had been anticipated.
I knew vaguely about Harry Hopkins first marriage to Ethel Gross. She was a Jewish girl and I think she was a social worker. I think he had two children by her. I knew what the gossip among social workers was and it wasn't based on anything in particular. I don't think I ever met his first wife, but I may have. People always said that she was a very neurotic and difficult person. Hopkins seemed a step up in the world above her. He was either her boss, or he was working in some organization in which she was. The marriage was extremely difficult. He was harassed from the beginning with problems he didn't understand at all. I didn't know his problems, but people always spoke of him with kind sympathy for his terrible marriage. He was always nervous and overwrought by the demands made on him.
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