An unopened 60+ year-old letter
An unopened 60+ year-old letter
… and the tale of two presidents
#111. Postmarked November 26, 1963, Addressed Mrs. Douglas Green, East Lansing, MI.
Note: This letter had never been opened and read. It contained a $5 bill.
Monday a.m.
Dear Helen,
I probably won’t make sense as I’m listening to all the reports – my radio is working perfectly – Faye told me to come over if I wanted to watch TV but I think I’m getting all I can take – I’ve had my flag out at half mast for three days. How can it be possible! I’m so glad Arlington is to be the place of burial – it is too bad, but I suppose unavoidable, that Mrs. Kennedy is allowed little privacy.
As I’ve listened, I’ve cut out the duster for Mary’s birthday (if I get it finished.) She picked the material when we went to Quincy sometime ago. I never would have selected it for anything. I wonder why my taste is so different from that of most of my family. The ceremonies have begun so I’ll take a time out.
————-
Now it is 6 PM and I have had my supper. I hardly know how to start the evening without the paper. I listened to all the comments and speeches today until it was all over and I was as tired as if I had been on the scene. It all seemed dignified and full of pomp, as was befitting, but oh the pity of it all. And now – “The tumult and the shouting dies; The captains and the kings depart: Still stands Thine ancient sacrifice, An humble and a contrite heart. Lord God of hosts, be with us yet, Lest we forget – lest we forget.* ” I’ve always heard that no one is essential and could always be replaced, but I’d certainly not want to step into the president shoes. I can’t get very good reception at night – not until very late and I’m anxious to hear about events in Dallas. Do you suppose there were two crackpots or is there something sinister behind it all?
While I listened, I cut out (I believe I said that) well, except putting on the collar and the buttons and the button holes the duster is done. I’ll finish it before I go to bed – I maybe will have to get the buttons, the machine drawers may not have five or six that match.
I’m interested in the news from Jenny and Larry. Maybe there will be a letter from them tomorrow. It seems, a long time without mail from Saturday morning until Tuesday morning.
The pajamas for the four men in my life are done to the fastenings. I’m hoping Bill will put the patent snaps on all the pants when he comes. I’ll put buttons on the coats. Now when I make Rebecca a winter bathrobe and some little gowns for Jenny‘s baby, my sewing will be done unless Jenny wants me to make something for her – if she still wants a fancy duster, I’ll buy it and Penny has never said what she wanted. Oh I’m not through yet either. I am making Terry and Helen Louise dresses – they will never know if Santa is a little late and I’ll have lots of time after Christmas and Christmas isn’t very far away.
I’m so glad you had such a nice trip to Boston and was duly honored. The two Cavaliers who taken fetch you to the airport are just about the nicest fellows I’ve heard about since Gene* and by the way, will Gene be getting his doctors degree soon? It is nice that he can teach in a university and still be where he can look after his mother until she adjusts to being alone. I’m sending the money for Helen Louise’s baby seat. I believe you said it was five dollars and my child you are much too generous with me. I don’t need so much. Whenever my “cash on hand” gets to $100 I send it to the bank – right now I’ve been so thankful to have no worry about taxes and fire insurance. I do appreciate all your kindness and Virginia’s too. Who is more blessed than I?
The next three days will be full, but now I love to have the family come. I wish you were coming too – maybe you won’t get this until after Thanksgiving. That is another holiday coming up this week. Nell and Ray are going to Collins for several days. Betty is going to take them up to see the new Woodhaven home on Saturday.
Lots of love, Mother [May Emma Northcutt Hinkson]
* Quote from Rudyard Kipling’s poem The Recessional, 1897
* Gene Drzycimski boarded with Helen Green starting January 1963 and became a ‘surrogate son’ to my grandmother during her first year empty nesting. Gene was my father’s roommate during his MSU doctorate program and bestman at my parent’s wedding.
In reading through my great-grandmother's letters to date, I’ve been cognizant of the fact that I’m the second or third reader of the letters, not the first. Most of the time, I believe May’s letters to “the Greens” were passed on to the twins after Helen read them. But for some reason, letter #111 postmarked November 26, 1963, had never been opened.
Had it been missed, I wondered, in the rush to prepare for Thanksgiving or had the chaos around recent world events played into its oversight. Regardless of which, in tearing open the envelope I was aware that I was the first family member to ever read this particular letter from my great-grandmother.
Inside the envelope were two unexpected gifts, a crisp five-dollar federal reserve note and May’s thoughts on the events surrounding John F. Kennedy's assignation. I consider her thoughts on this as a type of ‘gift’ because so few of my great-grandmother’s letters cite any world references, thus giving me some type of ‘literary anchor’ as a writer to explore. Most of May’s weekly letters I can easily sum as revolving around the reporting on three or more of these five activity categories;
Weekly family and friend interactions
Church and social activities
Gardening, canning, and house cleaning efforts
Sewing and handiwork
Local deaths, marriage, births, and hospitalizations (At age 80+, she was heavy on the hospitalizations and death reporting)
But this letter from May was different, as it was partly written in real-time while she was listening to the Kennedy memorial events. It contained her thoughts on a ‘world event’, a category I have seldom encountered to date.
In reading my great-grandmother’s thoughts on the Kennedy assignation I found myself struck with an appreciation for her concern for Mrs.Kennedy’s privacy. During those tumultuous first few days after JFK’s death I imagine that few around her were concerned with her privacy. The focus was on investigations, burial ceremonies, and the transfer of presidential powers to Lyndon Johnson. Jackie Kennedy unfortunately was more than just the grieving widow and mother; she was a media sensation that delivered news eyeballs.
The second insight I appreciate from May’s letter is her questioning of the assassin(s?) and the motivation… “Do you suppose there were two crackpots or is there something sinister behind it all?” This appears rather insightful to me, especially since this letter was composed a mere three days after Kennedy’s death.
Over the years, lots of conspiracy theories around JFK’s death have been spun while only a select and limited number of intelligence records have been released. In 1992, Congress passed the President John F. Kennedy Assassination Records Collection Act requiring that any presidential assassination record be publicly disclosed in full and made available in a collection no later than 25 years after the event. There was of course a caveat, that a sitting president could keep the documents sealed if they felt that disclosure would cause “(1) identifiable harm to the military defense, intelligence operations, law enforcement, or conduct of foreign relations; and (2) the identifiable harm is of such gravity that it outweighs the public interest in disclosure.”
With Kennedy’s assassination having taken place more than sixty years ago and the repeated ‘resealing’ of documents by newly elected presidents since the congressional act date expired, public speculation has grown considerably to suspect that Kennedy’s death may have been some type of an ‘inside job’. If he had truly fallen victim to an emotionally disturbed, ex-Marine veteran who “acted entirely alone” in shooting Kennedy (as the Warren Commission officially reported in 1964), why do the records continue to be suppressed sixty years later? My great-grandmother had an inkling to question things herself fresh off the event in November 1963… “or is there something sinister behind it all?” And I know I am not alone in thinking perhaps “ yes”, especially with what’s happened (or perhaps I should say “not happened” in the way of unsealing the documents) over the last six decades. It’s amazing to me that my great-grandmother at 83 (her age at the time of JFK’s assassination) had the wherewithal to question the prevailing political narrative. I guess the old saying is true… with age comes wisdom. Nuff said.
Fast forward to my re-read of my great-grandmother’s letter and her description of listening to the 1963 ceremonial events on the radio. This made me wonder how May would have experienced the two other presidential assassinations that had occurred during her lifetime in 1881 and 1901.
May was only a year and a half old when James Garfield, the 20th US president, died of infection complications caused by a bullet wound in September 1881. I’m pretty sure she had no awareness of this event, but that would not be the case when William McKinley was shot by a different assassin twenty years later.
In September 1901, May was 21 years old and a high school teacher at the newly built Public School in Moulton, Iowa. Moulton was then a thriving town of 1,400 (1900 census) located approximately 70 miles northeast of May’s hometown of Knox City, MO. With the timing of McKinley’s death coinciding with the start of a new fall term, it’s highly likely that McKinley’s death would have been a hot topic among May’s students and a discussion she might have engaged them in.
In LaBelle the news of McKinley’s assassination attempt was communicated through the local newspaper, which received the news most likely by telegraph. But when the LaBelle Star wrote the front page headline “McKinley Killed!” the same day that McKinley took two bullets, they got the initial story wrong. And since the LaBelle Star was only published once a week it would take a full seven days to correct the error.
Although McKinley was gravely injured by an assassin on September 6, 1901, he did not succumb to his wounds until seven days later on Sept 14, 1901. His death was eventually attributed to an infection caused by a bullet, the same as Garfield’s death twenty years before.
At this point in your reading you might be assuming that the two presidents associated with the title of this chapter would be Kennedy and McKinley. If so, you would be wrong. Kennedy is of course correct, but the second president is ironically yet another leader whose life was taken while he was in office... Abraham Lincoln.
This second president showed up in the 61-year-old unopened envelope in the form of a $5 federal reserve note. The astonishing thing about this discovery is the fact that this five-dollar bill was intended for “Helen Louise’s baby seat” … which is … surprise, surprise… Me!
It’s still a bit unbelievable to me that the ONE unopened envelope that I have encountered to date among the 110+ letters I have read so far, was the ONE that contained a bit of cash intended specially for MY benefit. Perhaps it was fate that this particular letter was overlooked in 1963 so that it would find its way to me some six decades later. But in reality, it’s more likely a consequence of chance elevated by my wishful thinking. Of course, I’ll never spend it. Instead, the five dollar bill is already framed and hung along with the Kennedy letter and postmarked envelope to serve as a great memento to this remarkable family history journey that I am on.
I like to believe that May Emma was smiling broadly down on me from heaven as I opened the envelope knowing that her intended gift from long ago was finally received. Sixty years is quite a detour. 😊
What a treasure for you to open this letter and such a fascinating letter to read!