Of note is the account of her acquaintance with Alger Hiss ("a charming and attractive fellow") and of her version of the breakdown of his marriage with Priscilla Hiss. During the 1930s in Washington, DC, Durr knew the Hisses through Marnie and Henry Abbott, the latter descended from the family of US President John Adams. Some years later, she saw Priscilla Hiss at the wedding of the oldest child of Clark Foreman (founder of the National Emergency Civil Liberties Committee and a Wallace aide during the 1948 elections). Aside from aging past point of recognition, Mrs. Hiss (according to Durr), was "terribly bitter" about her separation from Alger Hiss: