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Notable New     Yorkers
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Frances PerkinsFrances Perkins
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In the course of this, they had picked Irene Langhorne Gibson, Mrs. Charles Dana Gibson, and me for the first assault. Irene was a Southerner herself. She was Virginia-born. She never stopped bragging about being Virginia-born. She always kept herself sort of associated with Southern groups. She was just as Northern as I was in her attitudes toward everything. She'd lived in New York City ever since she was eighteen, when she was married to Dana. She was New York all right, but she had a slight Virginia twang to her accent and could make it stronger when she wanted to. She knew all the benefits of speaking Southern. She was a terribly sophisticated, amusing women, and a great friend of Al Smith's. She really thought the world of him.

They picked us to go. We were to go in a team. Irene was to utilize all of her Southern acquaintances - the best people, everywhere. She was to get introduced from one to the other and be invited by the best people - the most influential people and the best people. She was to make a drive at the best people, because they were the doubtful ones who made all the others doubtful. Irene knew the Southern people and she was to talk about him personally. I was to talk about him politically. We were both white, Protestant, Christians of good background, who didn't speak vulgar Brooklynese.





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