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Frances PerkinsFrances Perkins
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The telephone rang--my private telephone, the telephone that came direct from the White House--that telephone rang. I don't know whether it was Hackey or Miss Tully. It wasn't Miss Tully, no--it may have been Hackey, or it may even have one of the men who said on the telephone, “Madame Secretary, there'll be a Cabinet meeting at 6:00 tonight. Can you come right over?”

I said, “Sure. Certainly. 6:00 o'clock? That's a strange hour, “I remember saying

He said, “six o'clock tonight. Be right there.”

It was almost six then. It was getting on towards six. I looked at the clock. It was half past five, or twenty minutes of six. I was deep in conversation with Otis Milliken, and said to him, “Well, come along over. Ride over with me, and we'll finish this and come to some agreements about some person or some thing on the agenda.”

I got up and put on my coat, and I said to Miss Jay as we went out, “Cabinet meeting called for 6:00 o'clock, and I'm going over there now, and I won't come back. I'll go right home.” Meaning to say to her, “You go along, close up the office.”

Then as we went down the corridor into the elevator-- I had to take my car down in the basement--I began to think a little more about it. That was a strange hour to have a





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