Detroit evening times., 1945-06-24

After Pearl Harbor, Mrs. Corrigans position
became increasingly difficult. Certainly in the
Occupied Zone she was now an enemy alien. II
she had decided to come home, could have
blamed her. But she stayed on for there was
fresh work to do. Long before the United States
government any official agency was able TO do
so, Mrs. Corrigan had gotten her food packages TO
Americans interned at Compiegne in the days
just after Dec. Z, l94l
By the spring of 1912, not only were her jewels
gone with the exception of her wedding ring and
her watch1 and that part of her money which had
not been frozen, but her precious Jewels too
There was nothing to do but pack her bag and
accept the red white and blue bouquet from the
war wounded in Vichy's hospitals who had crowded
around her and wept as sire paid her final visit.
The woman whom the polite world" of three
continents had laughed at behind their hands had
finally showed them her worth
WHEN she got 10 Lisbon Laura Corrigan did not
w come home" Probably America had ceased
to be home to her any more. She flew, instead, to
London which had been her real headquarters
and home for so many years between the wars.
Once more she had access TO her fortune, but she
took a small suite at Clardges. And she managed,
despite the war 10 entertain in a little, too.
In an incredibly short time she had leased
huge house in Grosvenor Place and started the
Wings Club. This club or hotel for Raj officers
is supported in its entirety by Mrs. Corrigan.
The Wings Club is by now famous London
institution, slyy called by Mrs. Corrigan's critics
The Wigs Club" in honor of the 20 wigs she
is supposed 10 wear in rotation. That is an
other of the endless legends about the Waupaca
woman That she is bald billiard ball and
travels always with no less than 20 wigs all per
fectly coiffed. She laughs at the legend - and
doesn't talk!
When the Allies invaded Normandy, last June,
Mrs Corrigap promptly gave not one but II mobile
canteens for the comfort of Allied troops. Always
she confounds her critics with another and even
larger proof-ofher- generosity
1t is surprising, therefore that this singular
American should have been the first woman civilian
10 return TO Paris from outside France Or that she
Immediately looked up old friends, both rich and
poor, to help where needed. Nor did she neglect
TO write American relatives, telling them of loved
in France
The Cinderella girl who couldn't win Cleveland
and failed at capturing New York was helping TO
win a
She is a dedicated to good works. But
there is spark of the old Laura, whose flair for
clothes once caused her TO Scottish dress TO
a dinner party left. She still likes the glamour
names and faces. She is still quick TO snap up a
visiting celebrity for of her small dinners at
Claridges. She still knows the old tricks that made
her the most successful social climber in her
before she became the most successful angel Of
mercy
dining with Mrs Corrigan because, he said, his
boss, Brig Gen. wild Bill" Donovan, arriving
from the States the next day and had called staff
conference at pm
The next night-Wild Bill, looking as if ne did
not know quite what had hit him, arrived at the
conference three hours late
I'm terribly sorry to be late" the brigadier
general explained, "but I've been dining with Mrs
Corrigan."
THE END