In a few days we will observe the 41st anniversary of the death of Frances Perkins, one of the greatest progressives in American history. Frances Perkins was the first female Cabinet secretary, serving as Secretary of Labor for President Franklin D. Roosevelt, advancing the rights of American working men and women, as well as serving as the main force behind one of the key components of FDR's New Deal: Social Security.
What has all of this to do with Paul Wolfowitz you ask?
Well, in the last five years before her death on May 14, 1965 Frances Perkins was also a mentor to a younger generation of Cornell University students who lived with her at the Telluride House on campus.
The year after her death, in 1966 Christopher N. Breiseth, who had also lived with Frances Perkins at Telluride House, and who now serves as the President-Emeritus of the Franklin and Eleanor Roosevelt Institute in Hyde Park, New York, published an essay entitled "The Frances Perkins I Knew." Breiseth's title was a take off of Perkins' own earlier published memoirs on her life with FDR entitled "The Roosevelt I Knew." Dr. Breiseth's essay remained unpublished in the forty years that passed, until now. Dr. Breiseth quotes Frances Perkins on what an outstanding job the young and idealistic Democrat Paul Wolfowitz did in eulogizing President Kennedy after his assassination on November 22, 1963. We see a glimpse, under the tutelage of Frances Perkins, of what Paul Wolfowitz might have become if she had influenced him longer before her death a short time later. This essay by Dr. Breiseth is a wonderful reflection on the last years of an American giant, a woman who served her country over six decades, a leading progressive who worked with FDR instituting some of the greatest liberal policies in American history.
On this approaching anniversary of her death, the publication of Dr. Breiseth's "The Frances Perkins I Knew" by our FDR Center Museum serves to remind us all of the great life and legacy of this magnificent person, who served FDR and her nation with honor, dignity, and devotion, and made America a better place for all of us, even if she wasn't able ultimately to do the same for Paul Wolfowitz....
On behalf of the Franklin D. Roosevelt American Heritage Center Museum I am very proud to announce the publication for the first time of Christopher N. Breiseth's "The Frances Perkins I Knew," originally composed in 1966. This wonderful first person account of the last years of Frances Perkins is available on the FDR Center Museum website at http://www.fdrheritage.org in the New Deal Links section, which may be accessed from our homepage by clicking on the New Deal Links button at the top of the FDR Center's homepage.
As we approach the 41st anniversary of the death of Frances Perkins on May 14, 1965, the publication of Dr. Breiseth's "The Frances Perkins I Knew" 40 years after its original composition, serves as a means to celebrate the life and great legacy of Frances Perkins.
You may also access this wonderful publication by clicking on the direct link below:
http://www.fdrheritage.org/...
Abstract: A previously unpublished 1966 first person account by Dr. Christopher N. Breiseth of the last five years of the life of Frances Perkins, FDR's Secretary of Labor and the first female Cabinet Secretary in American history. Dr. Breiseth reflects on his graduate school days at Cornell University, while he lived with Perkins at the Telluride House on campus with a group of thirty students, as well as his close relationship with Perkins following his departure from Cornell that lasted until the end of her life.
Cordially,
Dr. Joe Plaud
President and Founder
FDR American Heritage Center and Museum
http://www.fdrheritage.org