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While planning an East Coast poetry reading tour, I learned that Alice Paul was in the Greenleaf Extension Home in New Jersey. I contacted the facility and requested a visit, which was granted. We decided on ten o’clock on a weekday.

The day I arrived, I was told they were expecting me and that she was ready. She was sitting up behind a small table. I introduced myself and sat facing her. We exchanged pleasantries, and then I asked how things were going. “I don’t understand why my letters get no response!” she was distressed by the lack of response to the letters she had been writing to Congress about the Equal Rights Amendment. We talked about how women needed to be elected to Congress. There were a few men who were supportive, but in 1977. there were no groups of women legislators to turn to for support. I said I would talk to the manager of Greenleaf and see if there were a problem with the mail.

A nurse came in asking who I was. An interview had been arranged, and the writer had arrived with a photographer, expecting to see Alice. What was I doing there? I explained that I was from California and had asked to visit her while on a reading tour. I also was willing to leave, which reassured everybody, and I told Alice I would ask about the confusion regarding the mail and get back to her about what I learned. 

I went to the front desk and asked to see the person in charge. I told her "Miss Paul continues to be perplexed as to why her letters get no response” and did she have an idea of any problems? 

The woman said, “She’s such a dear. Full of energy every morning with a new idea of which Senator should be contacted." 

I nodded, “So she is writing letters?”  

“Well,” the woman said, “the nurse just pretends to write them. Miss Paul thinks she is writing to Senators. They aren’t letters to family or anyone real.” 

I took out my notebook, “Is there a way I can hire a private secretary to come regularly to help her with her correspondence?” 

The woman looked startled, “Well, I suppose so.” 

I continued, “How would I do that? Can you recommend someone for me to contact?” 

“Oh, yes! We have a wonderful woman who comes when someone needs to contact family or for legal matters; she would certainly be able to do what you’re asking.” 

“Great. Can we start next week, say, 2 mornings of 3 hours each?" I made a note of her name and contact information. 

Before leaving, I knocked at the door of the interview room, and said, “I’m leaving now; just want to say goodbye.” I walked over & took Alice’s hand and said, “I’ve hired a private secretary for you. She’ll be coming next Tuesday to work on your correspondence. I’ve requested 2 days a week at 3 hours each visit.” Alice nodded, "Thank you.”  

“It’s an honor to meet you. I’ll call in a couple of weeks to see how it’s going.” 

As I left, Alice was talking with Robert S. Gallagher. That interview appeared in American Heritage in February, 1974. It is available online. 

The secretary I hired was excellent; she did as we requested and the letters got to their destinations and mail began to arrive for Alice Paul within weeks. Some were from Congress; one from a suffragist she had worked with in 1919. Her friends were afraid she had died, as all their mail to her house had been returned. 

Of the surviving Suffragists, six were well enough to plan a visit. They came together, and spent hours with Alice. Soon after their visit, she died. 

I was crying, hearing about her death, worrying that the excitement may have been too much. 

My Mom consoled me, “Everybody should get a party before they die.” 

Alice Paul had worked both in England and America to get the vote for women. No country in the world had women’s right to vote when they began, and it took years of marches and meetings and getting arrested to get support from President Wilson. She told interviewer Robert S. Gallagher that she expected that the right to vote would be approved by Congress, and was optimistic that it “could be done in a year...We would explain it to every congressman, and the amendment would go through... But it took us seven years.” 

The focus had been on the vote, and once accomplished, many suffragists returned to private life. 

Alice Paul and a handful of other women’s rights activists turned their attention to the Equal Rights Amendment. 

"We hadn’t been able to get a lawyer, so I drafted one in simple ordinary English.”  

This is the Equal Rights Amendment Alice Paul wrote : 

Men and women shall have equal rights throughout the United States and every place subject to its jurisdiction. Congress shall have power to enforce this article by appropriate legislation.