New Bedford Activist: Hillary’s DNC Story Is True

Marlene Tavares' tells the story about her and Hillary Rodham visiting girl in wheelchair.

In the latest chapter of the New Bedford/Hillary Clinton story, The Standard Times spoke with 84-year-old Marlene Tavares, who says that she was with the Democratic nominee when she visited the a young wheelchair bound New Bedford girl who was not going to school.

Tavares told The Standard Times, "It happened" while she was assisting the Children's Defense Fund when working for Onboard, Inc. in the 1970's

The anecdote came under question this past weekend when former New Bedford Mayor Jack Markey told the Boston Herald that Hillary's story "was not true".

"I’m even a Democrat, but the truth is the truth.  We would take handicapped kids in a small van to schools that could take them,” said Markey, who served on a local board that helped disabled children before he was elected mayor in 1971. “I would have been aware of a child needing help to go to school. The truth is we 
had access.'  --Jack Markey from the Boston Herald.

The Standard Time also spoke with Children's Defense Fund president, Marian Wright Edelman, who oversaw Clintons work. Marian told The Standard Times, that "it's unthinkable that Hillary Clinton would make up a story like this". She also stated that they would not "play around with facts" and "everything rested on our credibility".