Mozell Grey v. Margaret M. Heckler, Secretary of Health and Human Services

In 1931, Herbert Hoover was President of the United States, and Adolph Hitler was a struggling German politician. Pearl Harbor was a decade away, as was also the advent of commercial television and jet-propelled aircraft. Four years were to elapse before the enactment of the Social Security Act, 49 Stat. 620, and nine years would elapse before the benefits of the Act were made available to survivors, 53 Stat. 1362.

It was in 1931 that Arthur Grey and his first wife, Mozell, separated.1 During the forty-six years between the separation and Arthur’s death, he saw Mozell once, and that was at his…