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There was, for instance, the time he told the press that Perkins was the best “man” in the Cabinet. To this day I shrink and shudder when I think of that. Nothing more terrible could be said - me trying never to give offense to the gentlemen with whom I was associated, and knowing that the gentlemen with whom I was associated didn't like to have the lady pointed out as being superior. I thought I would die when I read that, and yet I realized at the same time that Hugh meant no harm. He thought it was a cute thing to say. But it was terrible and it seemed to me that I would never live it down. Even the President, who had a perfectly good sense of humor, teased me about it. He knew that I was dying over the thing and that it was just the wrong note.

But because Johnson told everybody, including the press, how much he thought of me I was generally regarded as his special friend, cooperator, protector, all that sort of thing. I was Hugh Johnson's keeper. That isn't quite the right word, but anyway there I was.

So the men in the committee took the lead from me. I would explain what they needed to do. I said that certain parts of his life and mentality made some aspects of the government incomprehensible to him and what we would have to contribute largely was propriety, the certainty that