I was happily contacted by another relative of Bill and Hattie.

Her name is also Laurie:
I decided to Google Hattie Carnegie today because I just spent two hours with my 89 year mother. She has dementia and can't keep her own kids straight but still has quite a memory of the past, although she gets a little confused when she retells it! But my whole life I heard about Hattie and her mother, my mom's "Tante Henna".

My grandmother's sister was Hattie's mother. That would've made Hattie my mom's first cousin. My mom told me stories my whole life, before she got the dementia.

My mom worked at "Carnegie" as she called it. She told me how she schlepped clothes up and down the stairs when she had a bad back. How she wasn't allowed on the sales floor without a "girdle and wardrobe check"! That Lucy (Lucille Ball) used to come in all the time and she would wait on her.

And the best story of all, how Cary Grant came in one day and winked at her! My mom was quite beautiful in her own right.

Today, out of the blue she started to talk about her Tante Henna. She talked about another one of Hattie's sisters that had two children who gave all their hand-me-down fancy expensive clothes to my mom and her sister Marian.

My mom's family was poor as could be and the two of them would go to school in these exquisite clothes when everyone was dressed so poorly. She said the teachers would keep her and her sister after school just to look at all the details of the clothes they would wear!

Today for the first time she spoke about "Herman". All the years she told me stories she had never mentioned him.  I was so intrigued by her stories today that I came home and googled Hattie Carnegie to see what would come up. Your site is the first I have visited. I was delighted when I read an article that mentioned Hattie's brother Herman. It's amazing how my  mom's mind is so mixed up at times and old stuff comes out that is real. Especially since last week she claims my son told her I was starting a new job and was too busy to visit her. What he told her was that I was working planning a wedding shower for my niece and would be too busy to see her for a few days. She was ready to pack her bags and move back to New York to her sister because she figured she would never see me again! Boy was she happy to see me today!

Anyhow, on Saturdays when she was a little girl, her mother would take her to see Tante Henna. My grandmother would bring her sister underwear andother things she needed. My mom says Hattie would give my grandmother some money when she came. Hattie was trying to get her to take care of Henna, evidently she wasn't well. But my grandmother told her, I have 4 of my own children to take care of.

My mom says Herman took care of the business end of Carnegie and when he saw my mom at work, he never acknowledged her as if he didn't know her!

I know I will remember more and I will ask my siblings what they remember of the stories. I hope I hear from you to make sense of some of this. I have barely tapped into your site but I will be reading more.

Oh! There is also a mystery dress I have that I believe to have came from Carnegie. The label is snipped out as my mother always clipped them out of her clothes as they bothered her. I will get you a picture. It is a beautiful red dress that my mom had said one of the seamstresses had made for her. Or maybe she bought it at Klines! Who knows!