The Head of the Table

When Widower Charles Curtis was elected Vice President of the United States in 1928, he assumed that his half-sister, Mrs. Dolly Gann, would rank as his official hostess. Dolly had been with Curtis in Washington ever since he came out of Kansas to enter the House of Representatives in 1893, and had acted as his secretary for 20 years. Even her marriage to Patent Lawyer Edward Everett Gann, a Kentucky Democrat, did not separate Dolly from brother Charles. She continued to play an active part in his campaigns and, after the death of his wife in 1924, she became a full partner in his social activities.

Plenary Session. Before Curtis had even settled into his new eminence, however, Dolly's social status became a hot issue. Her opponents argued that, in the absence of President Hoover's wife, top rank at the dinner table belonged to Alice Roosevelt Longworth, wife of Speaker of the House Nicholas Longworth and daughter of Teddy Roosevelt. Official hostess or not, they declared, Dolly was only the Vice President's sister, and should sit below the wives of foreign ambassadors. The leaders of this school of thought were the Longworths.

This did not sit well with Dolly and brother Charles. As the Vice President's hostess, they insisted, Dolly was entitled to the same social precedence as a Vice President's wife. To settle the point, brother Charles asked for a decision from Secretary of State Henry Stimson. (Stimson's predecessor, Frank Kellogg, had irritated Curtis by ruling against Dolly.) After a chat with President Hoover, canny Henry Stimson ruled that the matter would have to be decided by the diplomatic corps. In a plenary session at the British Embassy, the harried diplomats gave the nod to Dolly Gann.

Old Friends. By this time the "Gann-Longworth feud" was one of the nation's prime concerns. When it became known that Dolly would make her first appearance as Second Lady of the Land at a dinner to be given by Chilean Ambassador Carlos Davila, citizens who wanted to witness her hour of triumph bid $100 for an invitation to the party. Finally, at 8:00 p.m. on April 11, 1929, buxom (180 Ibs.) Dolly Gann took the arm of diminutive (100 Ibs.) Carlos Davila and marched to the head of the table. Alice Roosevelt Longworth was not present. Edward Everett Gann, who was present, sat well below the salt.*

The Democratic victory in 1932 eclipsed Dolly Gann's star, but it did not break her spirit. She campaigned for Landon in 1936, spent much of her energy and determination on the Red Cross and Salvation Army. When her beloved Republicans finally came back to power in Washington last month, she served along with Alice Longworth, now 68, on Ike's inaugural reception committee. Last week 8 7-year-old Dolly Gann died of a sudden heart attack. Alice Longworth, looking back sentimentally over the years, was "very distressed" at the news. Dolly, she said, was "an old, old friend."

* The proper disposition of Mr. Gann was also moot. Asked whether he must be invited to all the functions which Dolly attended, Alice Longworth reportedly said: "Mr. Gann's place is in the home." After Dolly's victory, Nebraska's late Senator George Norris, friend of the underprivileged, said: "I had the impression all along that Mrs. Gann would get what she wanted. Mr. Gann, however, is left wholly unprovided for--which is exactly as I feared. I refuse to abandon him in this crisis. I do not intend to let this matter rest until I am assured that he will have at least a snack wherever he goes."

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