English
Frank C. Walker Papers (WLK), University of Notre Dame Archives (UNDA), Notre Dame, IN 46556
Correspondence, reports and other papers relating to personal and business affairs and to politics, primarily in the 1930s and 1940s; minutes, proceedings, reports and press releases of the Executive Council, the National Emergency Council and the Post Office; financial reports of the Democratic National Committee 1924-1938, 1943-1944; reports on the motion picture industry, and correspondence and reports concerning the Notre Dame Board of Lay Trustees and the Notre Dame Foundation; a tape recording of an oral history interview with Walker's son Thomas and daughter Laura Jenkins; microfilm of Walker scrapbooks; record albums, photographs, and books from Walker's library.
The Papers of Frank C. Walker document his life from his early days in Butte, Montana to his tenure as Postmaster General during World War II. Walker's career in national politics was the result of his long friendship with Franklin Roosevelt. Much of the collection consists of office files from his service in the Roosevelt administrations, first as head of the Executive Council and the National Emergency Council and then as Postmaster General. It was also at Roosevelt's behest that Walker served as Democratic Party treasurer and chairman of the Democratic National Committee. It was loyalty to Roosevelt, rather than personal ambition, that kept Walker in public service.
Most of Walker's papers are from the positions he held within the New Deal and the Democratic Party. The Roosevelt campaigns, the formulation of New Deal programs, the selection of Harry Truman as vice-president in 1944, and other political events of the 1930s and 1940s are all discussed in Walker's Papers and have been of most interest to historians. But the collection also documents Walker's early career as a lawyer in Butte, his work as general counsel and president of his family's theatre business, and his personal interests in the University of Notre Dame and Catholic charities. These parts of his life are not represented by the extensive office files that document his days in public service, but it is clear from the Walker papers that his life included much more than politics and government service.
A good source for information on all aspects of Walker's life are the memoirs he worked on during his retirement but never completed. The transcripts, drafts, and notes that he produced as part of the project fill in many of the gaps in his papers. This is particularly true of his college days, the time he spent as a trial lawyer in Butte, and his work with the Comerford theater business. His recollections of Roosevelt, New Deal programs and personalities, and the politics of the period offer a personal point of view that is missing from the more public office files he accumulated. The memoirs tell us much about Walker, who despite his many years in public life was still a very private man.
Frank C. Walker donated his papers to the Archives of the University of Notre Dame in 1948, although the entire collection was not transferred at that time. After his death in 1959 the Walker family gave additional material to complete the donation. Walker's books, photographs, and record albums have been taken from his papers to form separate collections, each with its own finding aid. His books cover a wide variety of topics, although politics and the New Deal dominate. The photographs are largely from his tenure in government service, particularly with the Post Office; they include portraits of Walker with many of the political figures of the 1930s and 1940s. The record albums that came with the Walker Papers include a few of his speeches. In 1990 an oral history was conducted with Thomas J. Walker and Laura Walker Jenkins, Frank Walker's son and daughter. The transcript and tapes from this interview are also available.
Walker, a graduate of Gonzaga University, (Spokane, Washington) in 1906 and Notre Dame Law in 1909, practiced law in Montana and acted as the local Democratic chairman in the 1920 presidential election campaign. He moved to New York City in 1925 as vice-president and general counsel of a movie theatre chain, while also practicing independent corporation law.
He supported Franklin D. Roosevelt's campaigns for governor in 1928 and the presidency in 1932. During the 1932 campaign he served as Treasurer of the Democratic National Committee. President Roosevelt appointed him executive secretary of his President's Executive Council in 1933, and he subsequently acted as executive director of the National Emergency Council.
In 1940 he was appointed to succeed Jim Farley as Postmaster General of the United States, in which position he served until 1945. In 1946 he was appointed by President Truman as alternate delegate to the first United Nations General Assembly session in London. He returned to his business interests in N.Y. as director of W. R. Grace & Co. and the Grace National Bank of New York.
Frank C. Walker was born on 30 May 1886 to Ellen and David Walker in Plymouth, Pennsylvania. He was the eleventh of fourteen children. Ellen Walker ran a general store in Plymouth during Frank's earliest years while her husband tried prospecting in Montana. By 1890, the family had enough money to settle together in the growing mining town of Butte, Montana, where Frank spent most of his youth.
The Walkers initially prospered in Montana. As the owner of small mines or as the superintendent of large mines, David Walker was able to provide for his family until falling ill in 1901. At age fifteen, Frank Walker dropped out of school and worked for two years as a tool carrier in the mines to help support the family.
Family finances improved and Frank was able to continue his education. He spent three years in preparatory and collegiate courses at Gonzaga University in Spokane, Washington. After graduating from Gonzaga in 1906, he enrolled in the University of Notre Dame Law School and began an affiliation with that university which lasted throughout his life. Walker graduated from Notre Dame in 1909 and returned to Butte to commence his legal career. He first served as Assistant County Attorney until 1912 when he was elected to the Montana state legislature. Walker served only one term in the legislature before leaving to establish a law partnership with his brother, Thomas.
In 1914, Walker's attention was turned from his career to other concerns. In November he married Hallie Boucher, daughter of a Butte merchant. The year of Walker's marriage was also the start of World War I, and he served as a first lieutenant, arriving in France just one week before the armistice. After the war, the Walkers saw the birth of a son, Thomas, born in 1921, and a daughter, Laura, born in 1924.
Following the birth of his daughter, Walker left his law partnership and Butte to join his uncle, M.E. Comerford, in the successful Comerford Amusement Enterprises in New York City. Walker began as general counsel to the chain of Comerford theaters; by 1935 he was the chief operating officer. Walker's move to New York was important not only for his legal career but also for his future in politics. Exposure to political corruption and the struggles of labor in Butte's mining industry had provided him with firsthand knowledge of the need for progressive reforms. Now association with the progressive governor of New York, Franklin D. Roosevelt, confirmed Walker in those political beliefs.
Walker first met Roosevelt in 1920 when FDR was running for vice-president and was on a campaign trip that took him to Butte. But Walker's friendship and political alliance with the future president really began during Roosevelt's gubernatorial reelection campaign in 1930. By 1932 Walker was part of the inner circle of Roosevelt's emerging campaign for the presidency. A member of FDR's pre-convention committee, Walker was one of the principal donors to the early campaign. After FDR's close convention victory in Chicago, Walker was named Democratic National Committee (DNC) treasurer in August 1932.
With Roosevelt's election to the presidency in November 1932, Walker played an important role in the organization of the new administration. He advised Roosevelt on cabinet appointments as well as lower level positions. Initially uninterested in a post for himself, by the summer of 1933 Walker had been persuaded to head the Executive Council, a new body established that July to coordinate the administration's activities with appropriate governmental agencies. Comprised of cabinet members and agency heads, the Executive Council met weekly with the president.
Walker's role as coordinator of federal departments and agencies was expanded again when in November he was named director of the National Emergency Council (NEC). The NEC functioned much like the Executive Council, but it had fewer members, was national in scope, and concerned itself only with New Deal programs. Walker ran both councils from the same office. By October 1934, the two councils merged into one, keeping the name NEC.
Much of Walker's work with the NEC was with subsidiary governmental units. At his direction a government manual was prepared outlining all government departments and agencies. The United States Information Service was formed to disseminate information to the general public about the function and personnel of all government departments and agencies. Walker also helped plan and achieve passage of the National Housing Act, an attempt to encourage renovation of existing housing stock as well as the creation of new housing.
After the National Housing Act was signed in June 1934, Walker took a leave of absence from the government to concentrate on family business. He had never actually given up his work with Comerford Enterprises, commuting between New York and Washington several days each week. But Walker's plan to work only in one city was temporarily postponed when the following April he acceded to a request from Roosevelt to head the NEC's Division of Applications and Information (DAI), an office designed to review, rout, and report to the press on all applications to the four billion dollar Works Relief Program.
Walker spent an additional eight months dividing his time between the government and his private interests, but when the illness of his uncle, M.E. Comerford, and the death of his cousin, M.B. Comerford, gave him control of Comerford Enterprises, he needed to devote more of his time to business affairs. With his final resignation from the NEC, Walker concentrated his efforts on promotional activities for his theaters, in particular a quiz contest for moviegoers called "Motion Pictures' Greatest Year."
The circumstances of the 1940 presidential election conspired to draw Walker back into public life. James A. Farley, estranged from Roosevelt over the issue of a third term, resigned as Postmaster General in August. Roosevelt turned to Walker to fill the vacancy and Walker moved his family to Washington.
While serving as Postmaster General Walker also acted as a negotiator and advocate for Roosevelt's international policies. In his apartment in Washington, Walker and Secretary of State Cordell Hull held delicate informal negotiations with representatives of the Japanese government. But with the bombing of Pearl Harbor the focus of Walker's work in Washington turned back to the post office. The need was urgent to get mail to the millions of Americans stationed on two fronts overseas, and Walker is credited with effecting a remarkable transformation in the efficiency of the agency's operation to handle that task. In January of 1943, Walker added to his duties by succeeding Edward Flynn as chairman of the Democratic National Committee. Walker held that position for slightly less than a year, but during that time established a framework for FDR's successful fourth term presidential bid.
Walker's involvement in national politics virtually ended with the death of Roosevelt in 1945. Public service had been a personal favor to Roosevelt; Walker resigned as postmaster general in June of 1945. He did agree to one last act of public service early in 1946: he accompanied Secretary of State James Byrnes, Eleanor Roosevelt, and Edward R. Stettinius, Jr., as a member of the United States delegation to the first session of the United Nations Organization (UNO) in London.
Returning to New York, Walker resumed his work with the Comerford theaters. He also involved himself with W.R. Grace's shipping and banking interests, serving as a director of W.R. Grace and Company and the Grace National Bank.
Throughout his life Walker devoted a considerable amount of time to charitable activities. He worked as treasurer of Catholic Charities for the Archdiocese of New York, and as a member of the boards of the Franklin D. Roosevelt and Harry S. Truman presidential libraries, as well as the Board of Lay Trustees of the University of Notre Dame.
In 1952, Walker retired and started work on his memoirs with the help of his aide, Paul Kirby Hennessy. The work was never completed.
Frank C. Walker died on 13 September 1959.
Frank Walker's correspondence files begin in 1924 with his work in New York as general counsel to Comerford Amusement Enterprises and continue on to document his work with the Democratic Party, his positions within the Roosevelt administration, and his interests and activities after his retirement in 1952. The files are made up of fourteen separate alphabetical runs, each covering several years, and a group of subject files, set aside by Walker, consisting primarily of correspondence with and about Franklin Roosevelt and Harry Truman. Routine correspondence such as invitations, greeting cards, and congratulatory letters have also been filed in this series.
Correspondents include politicians, job seekers, White House and other government workers, New Deal officials in Washington and around the country, lobbyists, theater owners and others involved in the movie business, members of the Catholic hierarchy, administrators of the University of Notre Dame, and family and friends. Subjects discussed include political fundraising, Democratic Party conventions and campaigns, patronage jobs, New Deal policies and programs, the theater business, the finances, personnel, and procedures of the U.S. Postal Service, local affairs in Walker's hometown of Butte, Montana, and other personal matters. Correspondence with Roosevelt and Truman appears in both the general and the subject correspondence; the subjects covered in these letters include the presidents' speeches, messages that Walker had been asked to pass on to the White House, political strategy, and patronage matters.
The content and arrangement of Walker's correspondence reflects the fact that he was usually holding more than one job at a time. His official positions included Democratic Party treasurer (1932), director of the National Emergency Council in the Roosevelt administration (1933-1935), postmaster general (1940-1945), and chairman of the Democratic Party (1943-1944). But in addition to these jobs he was very active in Democratic Party affairs and the Roosevelt administrations throughout his career even during those years when he had no official duties. His correspondence is a source of information on these continuing interests as well as his official positions. Walker kept separate files for his work with the Democratic Party, the NEC, the Post Office, and his family business. These records can be found in other series in the Walker Papers, but much of the correspondence from these activities was filed with his general correspondence.
The records in this series are from Walker's work with the Executive Council and its successor, the National Emergency Council. The Executive Council, established in 1933, was comprised of cabinet members and agency heads who met weekly with the president to coordinate the administration's activities with governmental agencies. The NEC, which took over the duties of the Executive Council in 1934, had fewer members, was national in scope, and was concerned only with New Deal programs. Walker headed both councils while also taking on special assignments from Roosevelt to help pass the National Housing Act, establish the United States Information Service, and work closely with the NEC's Division of Applications and Information, the federal office that reviewed applications to the Works Relief Program. All of these special assignments are reflected in the records.
The files include correspondence and memoranda, minutes and agenda, reports, office logs of correspondence and telephone calls, applications for federal funding, reports on federal work projects, copies of Roosevelt's speeches, congressional testimony and copies of legislation, printed material, and clippings. Correspondents include the president and others in the White House, senators and members of Congress, state and local officials, lobbyists, job seekers, Democratic Party officials, businessmen affected by New Deal programs, and others. The records offer a detailed picture of Walker's role in the New Deal, especially as it related to the public works programs. The correspondence in this series also documents Walker's work for the Democratic Party in the areas of fundraising and patronage jobs. In addition to the records found in this series, letters concerning the NEC are also filed in the Correspondence Series, other speeches by Franklin Roosevelt can be found in the Speeches Series, and newspaper clippings on Walker's work with the NEC are part of the Scrapbook Series.
Frank Walker served as Postmaster General from 1940 to 1945. The records from his post office tenure include correspondence, memoranda, notes, minutes of the Post Office Wartime Operations Board, reports on topics relating to the postal service, reports from postal inspectors, files on job seekers, and copies of speeches given by Walker. Much of Walker's time as Postmaster General was spent working on the problems of delivering mail to servicemen overseas while operating the domestic postal service during World War II. His correspondence, many of the reports filed in this series, and the minutes of the Post Office Wartime Operations Board discuss wartime concerns such as domestic shortages, censorship of mail, and the logistics of transporting mail overseas.
While he was Postmaster General, Walker maintained two offices, one in New York for his personal business and the other in Washington for his official records. In practice many of his letters that were unrelated to the postal service, such as correspondence concerning the Democratic Party and the Walker family business, were filed with the records of his Washington office. For this reason Walker's Post Office correspondence, which deals with all aspects of his work as Postmaster General, has been kept as part of the general Correspondence Series in boxes 24 to 44. The correspondence that has remained in the Post Office Series is filed by subjects such as job applications, specific reports, special issue stamps, or speeches given by Walker. The memoranda files in this series also contain some correspondence along with memoranda from his office staff and other government agencies.
Of special interest in this series are copies of speeches given by Walker while he was Postmaster General, beginning in the summer of 1941 with a speech on isolationism and continuing on with speeches on the war effort. Along with drafts and final versions of the speeches, Walker also kept files of letters written in reaction to them. Most of the speeches given by Walker can be found in the Speeches Series, while newspaper clippings on his work with the Post Office are in the Srapbook Series.
Frank Walker was named treasurer of the Democratic National Committee (DNC) in 1932 and chairman in 1943. Between these two official positions he served the party in a number of informal capacities as a fundraiser, advisor, and member of Roosevelt's presidential campaign committees. The records in this series reflect this mix of official and unofficial duties. Walker filed some of the correspondence relating to his work with the party, especially his unofficial duties, in his general correspondence files. Researchers should also consult the Correspondence Series for letters relating to the Democratic National Committee.
The documents from the 1932 campaign and Walker's tenure as treasurer include correspondence with donors, creditors, state party officials, and members of the Democratic National Finance Committee, which Walker chaired. The papers also include detailed financial records from the Democratic Party during this period, such as audits, financial reports and statements, lists of contributors, and records of disbursements and receipts. When Walker became treasurer in 1932 the Democratic Party was heavily in debt and many of the records for this period document Walker's role in the party's attempt to pay off the debt and raise money for future campaigns.
The records from the 1936 presidential campaign include correspondence, detailed election projections from Democrats around the country, strategy papers, reports from campaign committees, and financial records. Walker's work as chairman is reflected in correspondence, committee lists and minutes, memoranda from the White House, and daily office logs of visitors and correspondence. The subjects covered in the correspondence include campaign strategies for 1944, the 1944 convention, state politics, political appointments, party finances, and the composition and work of party committees. Newspaper clippings on Democratic Party activities are filed in the Scrapbook Series.
In January of 1941 Frank Walker was asked to deliver unofficial messages from some members of the Japanese government to President Roosevelt. The request came from Father James M. Drought and Bishop James Edward Walsh, two members of the Maryknoll foreign mission society whose work in Japan had brought them into contact with Tadao Wikawa (also called Paul Wikawa), a prominent Japanese banker with close ties to his government. Walker agreed to serve as an intermediary between the United States government, primarily Secretary of State Cordell Hull, and the Japanese government. The subjects of the negotiations were the strained relations between the two countries and possible agreements that might ease the tensions. Roosevelt asked Walker to make unofficial contacts with the Japanese embassy and to reduce to writing whatever proposals the Japanese made. The records from these negotiations include accounts of meetings, correspondence among the participants, memoranda to Roosevelt and Cordell Hull, chronologies of events, position papers, texts of cables, and newspaper clippings on Japanese- American relations. Most of the contacts were by telephone or personal interview and few written communications were exchanged. Also included in this series are records generated after World War II as historians and Congress investigated the events leading up to the attack on Pearl Harbor. Included in this category are correspondence, excerpts from books on the topic, accounts of the events by various participants, and testimony and reports from the 1946 congressional investigation into the Pearl Harbor attack. Walker's own account of the negotiations and related events can be found in the Memoirs Series (boxes 122-125).
In 1946 Frank Walker accompanied Secretary of State James Byrnes, Eleanor Roosevelt, and Edward R. Stettinius, Jr. to London as a member of the United States delegation to the first session of the United Nations (U.N.) following the adoption of the group's charter at the San Francisco Conference in 1945. Walker's records from these meetings include correspondence, his diary for December 1945 to February 1946, reports of the United States delegation, memoranda reporting meetings with other delegations, U.N. General Assembly resolutions and amendments, lists of U.N. committees and minutes from their meetings, a digest of world press comments on the U.N., and press releases. Correspondents include other members of the United States delegation, organizations and individuals interested in world cooperation, delegates from other countries, and U.N. officials. Walker's work with the United Nations Organization and the U.N. delegation was his last act of public service before returning to his family business and personal interests. Newspaper clippings concerning United Nations activities of this period can be found in the Scrapbook Series.
In the fall of 1938 the motion picture industry ran a a contest, called Motion Pictures' Greatest Year (MPGY), to increase attendance at local theaters by promoting that year's movies. Contestants who correctly answered a series of questions about current movies were eligible for prizes ranging from $10 to$50,000. The promotion was organized as an independent corporation with the participation of the major movie companies and local theaters.
Frank Walker served as the corporation's treasurer; his duties included collecting money from participating theaters and companies, keeping accounts for the receipts and expenditures of the corporation, and helping to pay out the prize money. The records from the promotion include correspondence, contracts, lists of contest rules, participating theaters, and winners, daily and weekly reports of receipts and expenditures, canceled checks, expense receipts and purchase orders, and records of the money collected from participating theaters.
The Walker Papers do not include extensive records from the Comerford family business, which Frank Walker served as general counsel and eventually president. Working with his Uncle Mike (M.C.) Comerford and his cousin Mike (M.B.) Comerford, he was responsible for the legal arrangements between Comerford Enterprises and their national chain of theaters, many of which were part owned by local investors. In 1930 the Comerford theater interests were sold to Paramount, but by 1933 Paramount was bankrupt and in receivership. As part of the company's reorganization, Comerford Enterprises was brought back into the theater business to help run the chain. This relationship lasted until 1949 when it was dissolved as part of the federal government's anti-trust suit against the motion picture industry.
The Correspondence Series does include letters concerning the family business, which operated from a New York office at 1600 Broadway. Some of this correspondence is filed under the name of the business, but most of it is filed by name of correspondent as is the case with most of the letters in the Correspondence Series. The Memoirs Series has a draft of Walker's recollections of his work with the Comerford companies and articles and clippings about the 1949 anti-trust settlement.
Frank Walker entered the Notre Dame Law School in 1906 and began an affiliation with the school which lasted throughout his life. He graduated in 1909 and later served on the university's Board of Lay Trustees, worked for the Notre Dame Foundation, and was a member of the Notre Dame Club of New York. He was given an honorary degree in 1934 and the university's Laetare Medal in 1948.
The records from Walker's tenure on the finance committee of the Board of Lay Trustees include correspondence, quarterly and annual financial reports, minutes and agenda, and annual reports from Notre Dame's president. The Notre Dame Foundation was formed in 1948 to coordinate all university fundraising. Walker's work with the foundation is documented by correspondence, summaries of gifts received, fundraising letters and literature, lists of contributors, copies of the foundation's newsletter, and mailing lists. Correspondents include J. Arthur Haley, John J. Cavanaugh, CSC, Herbert Jones, Clarence Manion, James Armstrong, Philip Moore, CSC, John B. Kanaley, and John H. Murphy, CSC. The Notre Dame Series also includes correspondence, mailing lists, minutes, newsletters, minutes, and manuals from Walker's membership in the Notre Dame Club of New York. The Memoirs Series includes notes, drafts, and correspondence relating to Walker's years at Notre Dame.
Frank Walker's work with Catholic charities included membership on the Committee of the Laity for the Archdiocese of New York and the chairmanship of a subcommittee formed to solicit contributions from the motion picture industry. Walker's records include correspondence, lists of donors and the amounts they contributed, minutes of meetings, and annual reports. Correspondents include John A. Coleman, the executive director of the Committee of the Laity, other committee members, and people who worked in the motion picture industry. Much of Walker's work involved contacting other movie companies and encouraging them to ask their employees for contributions. The contributions were then sent back to Walker who turned them over to the archdiocese. Most of the records in this series are letters concerning contributions and lists reporting the donors, their addresses, and the amount they have given.
These files include copies of speeches given by Walker along with transcripts of speeches given by his contemporaries. The subjects of Walker's speeches, following the interests and activities of his career, include political campaigns, the New Deal programs, the Post Office, World War II, the Catholic Church, and the University of Notre Dame. The speeches were delivered to political rallies and dinners, professional groups, gatherings he attended as Postmaster General, and fundraising events of all kinds. A few were broadcast over the radio. Copies of some of the speeches Walker gave as Postmaster General have been filed in the Post Office Series.
The speeches are filed in two ways; some have been grouped together by date and others have been filed separately and identified by topic or audience. Walker also collected copies of speeches given during the 1940s by others, primarily politicians, including Eleanor and Franklin Roosevelt, Harry Truman, James Farley, Harold Ickes, Henry Wallace, Cordell Hull, Fiorello LaGuardia, and Thomas Dewey. Other speeches by Franklin Roosevelt have been filed in the National Emergency Council Series.
The subject files bring together printed material, correspondence and memoranda, and a few mementos from Walker's government service. The printed material consists primarily of government reports on a wide variety of topics, including the WPA and other New Deal programs, economics, housing, World War II, and others. Walker also collected publications on topics relating to his hometown of Butte and the Montana mining industry. The correspondence concerns Walker's work on the board of the Roosevelt and Truman Presidential Libraries and as a member of the Gonzaga University Alumni Association. The mementos include a car flag and Walker's government identification.
Frank Walker worked on his memoirs from 1949 until 1957. In 1951 he enlisted the aid of Paul K. Hennessy, a lawyer and fellow native of Butte, Montana, who had served as an attorney for several New Deal agencies. There is very little correspondence between Hennessy and Walker about the memoirs. The chronology of events presented here is based on the date and content of the many notes, transcripts, and drafts that are filed in this series. There are a few memoranda in which Hennessy outlines his proposals for the memoirs or presents the results of his research to Walker, but most of their work must have been done face to face.
Hennessy's first step, when he began work in 1951, was to compile a collection of short drafts, which Walker had written between 1949 and 1951, on topics relating to his work with Franklin Roosevelt from their first meeting in 1920 to the 1944 Democratic Convention. This compilation, filed in box 122 folder 18, served as the basis for three taping sessions in August of 1951, made at Coonamessett, Massachusetts, in which Walker recorded his recollections of his early career in Montana and his work with the New Deal. Hennessy then spent the rest of 1951 editing the transcripts (box 122 folders 23-25) from the tapes and submitting his work to Walker with questions.
The next step was another series of taping session, this time made in Delray Beach, Florida in March of 1952. This set of recollections covered much the same ground as the first but this time in much more detail, although there was very little order to the way in which Walker told his story. Transcripts were made of these tapes (box 122 folders 32-36), but Walker did not preserve the actual tapes. In the course of editing the transcripts from the Delray Beach recordings, Hennessy prepared short drafts on specific topics, such as the 1940 campaign, and submitted them to Walker with questions. This work took up most of 1952. Later in the year another set of tapes and direct dictations, much less extensive than the first two sets, were made at Coonamesset (box 122 folder 50).
In early 1953 Hennessy completed a draft of Walker's memoirs, which he labeled the "First Final Draft" (box 123 folders 3-8). In his correspondence with Walker, Hennessy offers an outline of the sections, which he called articles, that were to be included in the finished memoirs. Based on this outline only three of the proposed four sections were completed for the "First Final Draft," including articles on the Executive Council (which became the National Emergency Council), the 1932 convention and first inauguration, and Walker's early years with Roosevelt. A fourth section on Walkers family and his days in Butte was not completed as part of this draft. Hennessy held out the possibility that he and Walker might also complete short versions of Walker's recollections of the Supreme Court controversy and the 1944 Democratic Party convention.
It is unclear what work was done on the memoirs during the remainder of 1953 and throughout 1954 and 1955. Walker did compile notes on a few topics, most notably his early career in Butte and his work with the Comerford theater business. But it wasn't until 1956 that Walker again began to work in earnest on his memoirs. From February to April of 1956 he wrote out his thoughts on his early life in Butte, his education at Notre Dame, his part in the 1941 negotiations with Japan, the New Deal and Roosevelt, and his reasons for writing his memoirs. This work culminated in two versions of another full-length draft (box 123 folders 29-31). The two 1956 drafts of his memoirs concentrated on Walker's life and career up to the 1932 presidential campaign and election; they are not substantially different. Paul Hennessy left the project sometime in late 1953 or 1954. He was apparently replaced by William Cronin, who had worked for Walker during his days in Washington. It was probably Cronin who helped Walker complete the 1956 draft, which appears to have been the last work that Walker put in on his memoirs.
If the two drafts, the "First Final Draft" from 1953 and either of the versions from 1956, are taken together they essentially form one work which covers Walker's life. There is some overlap between the draft from 1953 and the two from 1956, but they are not two versions of the same work. The best way to approach the documents in this series is to look at these three drafts as one complete work that covers all of Walker's life and career. The transcripts of the tapes made in 1951 and 1952 at Coonamessett and Delray Beach also cover most of the events in his life. Specific topics, such as New Deal activities, the 1944 convention, Walker's work with the Comerford theaters, and his early life in Butte, are covered in Paul Hennessy's research memoranda and Walker's notes and short drafts, which have been filed by topic. All of the transcripts, drafts, and notes have been arranged chronologically according to when they were created.
The series also includes newspaper and magazine clippings on Walker, Roosevelt, the New Deal, Notre Dame, and histories of American politics of the 1930s; a small selection of correspondence and other documents that Walker brought together to help him write his memoirs; extensive transcriptions of newspaper stories from the Anaconda Standard (Butte) sent to Walker by George O'Malley; and an index to published references to Walker.
This series includes newspaper clippings, congratulatory letters, invitations, and programs relating to Frank Walker's work in the New Deal, with the Democratic Party, and as Postmaster General. The clippings and other documents also cover his interests in Notre Dame, the Catholic Church, the motion picture business, sports, politics, and his hometown of Butte, Montana.
Most of the clippings that are not in scrapbooks are arranged chronologically. They were collected by the Division of Press Intelligence during Walker's term as Postmaster General. Other clippings have been arranged by topic. The scrapbooks have a similar arrangement, usually covering a specific period of Walker's career, although a few were put together to commemorate an event or to document a particular topic. Several scrapbooks are on microfilm (M130) and the originals have been discarded. Walker's photograph albums have been removed from his papers to form the Walker Photograph Collection (GWLK).
Franklin Roosevelt see also FDR