From the outset of their lifelong relationship, Corning and Noonan were seen together around the Capitol, at political meetings, campaign dinners, Elks Lodge dances and committeemen strategy sessions. A very good friend.''' After she said it, Schenck detected a wink from Noonan. Over the years, Schenck, who played golf with Corning at Schuyler Meadows Country Club, would see a lot of Noonan. Betty Corning clearly knew what everyone in Albany was whispering about from the very beginning, her friends agreed. Put it out of our heads,'' said Betty's close friend, Jean Beebe.
History repeats itself.
The mayor's longtime associate Jacob Herzog also saw the Erastus-Polly relationship in historical terms. Rockefeller and Corning were brought up in the same rigid social class and Corning got married right out of college before he had time to fool around. Herzog illustrated his point with an anecdote from a few years before the mayor's death in 1983. Corning was sitting for a portrait with Herzog's wife, the painter Betty Warren. Corning periodically would pose at Warren's studio at her home in Albany.