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Francoise was a women of culture--at home in the arts and fashion, comfortable at once with the intellectual and the earthy. She attracted successful men and women because they knew she respected their integrity and understood the anguish of the act of creation. And they were all awed by the way she had found happiness--rather late in life--in her marriage.

She was devoted to him with a matter-of-factness that turned love into a way of life. She shared his work and inspired his environment. Love and grace are biblical words which Francoise personified. Philosophers write books to explain them. Her essence and inspiration was that she incarnated them.

Francoise showed us how to live, and then she showed us how to die. No one in this room ever heard a word of complaint about her years of suffering or even knew that she was desperately ill. It was sacrofacial she would say. Go to an osteopath you coward I would tease. You are afraid to have your bones cracked. I will, she boomed, just let me work up the courage. Two

SEP.12 '83 11:04 KISSINGER ASSOCIATES, WASH. DC

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weeks before she died she came in great agony to a birthday party for me. Later on a friend sitting at her table commented to me about the suddenness of her death. She had been so well he thought, so charming. It was such a pity how fate had struck her down so unexpectedly. It was a vintage Francoise performance. She was not one to be a burden to anyone, even a perfect stranger.

The next day she called me with an amusing comment on the fashion she had seen, on the seating and above all to express her pride about the speeches she had heard.

A week later she called again. I had reacted rather sharply on television to an unkind book about me. I should remember, she said, that my friends did not believe a word of it. I should not consume myself in bitterness. I should show no reaction; it was not needed for those who were close to me and useless for those who were not. I asked how she was--knowing the answer but grasping for reassurance. She was working up

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courage for theosteopath she said.

A few days later she went to another kind of
rendevous.

There is no one in this room whose life has not been made
emptier by Francoise's death.

And no one who would trade that emptiness with those who
never knew her.

Her very special friends called her La Generale. Her
troops are here assembled in force for the last time. Her
command has, however, not ended. And with pride and above
all with love, they salute her.