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Notable New     Yorkers
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Frances PerkinsFrances Perkins
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Smith that evening. She was wonderful. She was perfectly wonderful. I had never seen her before, but I did see her two or three times later because I hunted her up. She was tall, spare, broad-shouldered, big boned, but thin. She had a face that was so like Al Smith's that it was extraordinary except that it was in female form. It had that big nose, high cheekbones, big forehead, big dome of a skull, strong mouth and chin. I remember thinking how she did look like the “Great Mothers of the Gracci.” She had that terrific quality. She had gray hair. Of course she was dressed like a typical, Brooklyn Irish-American widow - plain black coat, a very plain, very dowdy kind of a bonnet-like hat on gray hair. There was nothing well groomed, manicured or dolled up about her, but, oh, what a face.

I was with her alone. We walked from the restaurant to City Hall. We walked through City Hall Park arm in arm together. I talked with her. We talked about what a great fellow Al Smith was and I said how much I thought of him and respected him. She said to me, “Yes, Alfred was always like that.”

I said, “What do you mean ‘like that'?”

“Alfred was always a little man. When he was a boy of eleven he had to support the family. I worked too, but Al earned most of the money. He was always a little man.





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