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

Frances PerkinsFrances Perkins
Photo Gallery
Transcript

Part:         Session:         Page of 915

death. She said to me, “I don't know what I'm going to do. I don't know how I'm going to handle my part of it. It's bad enough for Harry, but what am I going to do? I'm not used to this awful public life. Mrs. Roosevelt is on the way to Washington now and is going to pack up. She has suggested to me that on Tuesday next I hold a press conference. She will sit with me and sort of introduce the girls to me and get me familiar with the procedure. I don't know what to do. Do you think I ought to do that, and see the press?”, all this being said in a plaintive, emotional way.

I had to think quickly, and I said, “No, Mrs. Truman, I don't think you ought to. I don't think you ought to feel the slightest obligation to do it. Mrs. Roosevelt is an unusual person. She had a special talent for handling the press. She has a special talent for publicity. She does it well. She enjoys it. She contributes something to it. Not one woman in 10,000 would ever have that facility. I don't think that any other President's wife will ever do it. None ever has before. There certainly isn't anything that the press has any right to ask you. The ordinary guest lists of whoever you ask to dinner or tea will be given out by the State Department, or by one of the Presidential secretaries, or by your own private secretaries. That's all that is necessary. I don't think you ought to see the press if you





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