ransvestia

since he had made correspondence acquaintance with others across the country while he was working for Chevalier, he saw to it that word was spread around the country claiming that I was using the funds paid to Phi Pi Epsilon for personal purposes and that I was really coining money out of Chevalier. The word was that I made $30,000 a year net. NET, mind you, and this in 1962 only three years after the magazine started. That was funny in one way because I never made that amount gross in that year or any other year even up to the present. But the technique of the Big Lie worked for Hitler and, of course, it will work for anyone else that uses it cleverly and Bob did, so lots of people were disenchanted with me and with FPE because of this.

I got tired of trying to explain the real truth especially when I didn't know who I should be explaining it to, so the other solution was to eliminate the whole matter which I did by asking Fran of Wisconsin, whom I had met at the New York convention and liked immediately, to become Secretary-Treasurer of FPE. As soon as she accepted I closed the bank account here and shipped the whole amount to her so that in the future I didn't have anything to do with the FPE funds until Fran had to discontinue some 10 years later.

As things got busier for FPE we appointed a number of trusted girls in various areas around the country to be Councilors for their area and at that time I asked Fran if she would become Executive Secretary of FPE which she fortunately agreed to. She, therefore, "ran" the organization for 10 years or so being responsible for setting up chapters, handling most of the correspondence and in conjunction with myself approving prospects for membership. She also initiated the Theta chapter in the Madison area and after publishing a small newsletter for that group branched out with the Femme Forum which was the national newsletter for Phi PI Epsilon just as the Femme Mirror is for Tri Sigma today.

As Fran was the effective executive officer of the organization during those years, she deserves great credit because she also had a real place in the development of the movement since FPE was the first national organization for heterosexual cross dressers to come into existence. There were, therefore, three pioneers in the field, Susanna in New York with her Casa Susanna in the Catskills and her apartment in New York where she counselled many a worried TV. She also for a number of years wrote a column called "Susanna Says"

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