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Frances PerkinsFrances Perkins
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appearance and didn't look sick. He looked well and his voice was strong. The man on the street just assumed, “He's all right. Isn't that wonderful. This fine fellow we thought was dead still lives.”

Between '24 and '28 he was seeing everybody - anybody and everybody that could get to see him. He was around. Mrs. Roosevelt was very instrumental in keeping him around. With her it was I think primarily a concern to keep him from being depressed, keep him encouraged and enthusiastic about life. She and Louis Howe were keeping him in the public mind. Louis Howe had this fixation on him from the days of the Navy. He felt that he was the greatest living statesman and that nothing was beyond his reach. Louis had that idea. I don't think Roosevelt took Louis' ideas too seriously. I think he sort of laughed them off, but nevertheless he was influenced by them because he heard it all the time. You couldn't help having that go into the matrix of your own thinking about yourself.

Mrs. Roosevelt was deliberately bringing people to see him - people in public life, people in politics, people they'd known in Washington, and others. She brought in almost anybody and everybody that was connected with his vigorous period of activity. On doctor's advice, I guess, she wanted to keep him alert, wanting to live, wanting to





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