Letters to Jackie (36 page)

Clarke, Mr. and Mrs. John W.

Lynne Clarke, who wrote to Mrs. Kennedy also on behalf of her husband, was a Phi Beta Kappa graduate of Douglass College. An accomplished writer, she had a long career in government. She served as director of economic development for Monroe County in Rochester, New York. Mrs. Clarke died of breast cancer in 1996. John Clarke writes: “At the time the letter to Mrs. Kennedy was written, I was a radio newsman at WHAM in Rochester, New York, and coincidentally had aired the news bulletin reporting that President Kennedy had been shot in Dallas. I was graduated from the Cornell Law School in 1967 and have been a trial lawyer for over forty years. My areas of practice are environmental, health, and commercial law.” He has been married to his wife, Stephanie, for ten years.

Cohan, Mrs. Donald S.

Mrs. Cohan is now seventy years old. She has three sons and five grandchildren. She continues, in her words, her “love of music, history, Civil War, all sciences. ” She has “bred golden retrievers and still remains anti-war.”

Cohee, Mr. and Mrs. Ralph

Mrs. Cohee and her family struggled for survival after 1963. Despite her own hardships and health problems, she focused on the importance of educating her children. She enjoyed fishing, farming, and churchgoing.

Cook, Mrs. John G and Mrs. Henry Wood

Born in Georgia in 1917, Henrietta Cook was one of seven children. She had an eighth-grade education but enjoyed learning. After her marriage to John Cook, she devoted herself to raising her son and to being a homemaker. She was a wonderful cook and canned her own fruits and vegetables. She died of cancer at the age of fifty. Her mother, Mrs. Henry Wood, was born Cordelia Hearn in August 1884 and outlived her daughter. She was a lifelong Georgia resident, living on her own at the age of ninety. She had a limited education but enjoyed television in her later years. She also was an expert quilter, especially accomplished at tatting, or lace making.

Crabtree, Janice R.

Janice Crabtree lives in Texas. She is a mother and grandmother who was widowed and who remarried again in her eighties. She vividly remembers the Kennedy assassination, noting that it had a powerful effect on her long after November 22, 1963.

Cuchia, Mr. and Mrs. Frank

Jean Cuchia was born in Kansas City, Missouri, in 1924. Her parents were Italian immigrants who settled first in New York. Mrs. Cuchia and her family moved to Dallas in 1941. She married, had two sons, and today still lives in Dallas.

Daniel, W. J. B.

Mr. Daniel worked as a radar technician during World War II. His family reports that he developed skin cancer, secondary to radiation exposure, and was nearly bedridden at the time he wrote to Mrs. Kennedy. He had five daughters and died in 1973.

Davenport, Marilyn

Marilyn Davenport raised four children as a “stay-at-home mom for almost twenty years” before returning to work. Widowed in 2006, she and her husband were married for nearly fifty years. Mrs. Davenport is retired.

Davis, Cornelia

Cornelia “Connie” Davis was born in Tennessee and received her B.S. from the University of Illinois and an M.A. from Loyola University in Chicago, where she taught in the public schools and served as a vice principal. After she and her husband moved to California in the late 1950s, Mrs. Davis devoted herself to raising her children and to involvement with several charities. She had two sons and several grandchildren. The daughter she mentions in her letter became a physician. Mrs. Davis died in 2001.

Davis, George

George T. Davis was born in Montgomery, Alabama, in 1922. His family reports that he was a highly decorated World War II veteran who flew a B-24 bomber in over fifty missions. A high school English teacher, Mr. Davis had two children. He died of a heart attack in 1979.

Davis, Tony and Mrs. Donald K. Davis

Shortly after the letter was written, the Davis family moved to Idaho. Tony’s mother was a great fan of the Kennedy family. Her son recalls that “Mom was patriotic and loving of her country and of her President.” Tony Davis still lives in Idaho. His mother has since passed away.

Delaney, Henry H.

Henry Delaney enjoyed history and music. The daughter he mentioned in his letter died of cancer in 1982 after a successful career at Florida Atlantic University. Mr. Delaney died the same year.

Diamond, Ellen

Ellen has counseled disadvantaged youths in their career and education decisions, and worked as a peer counselor to help colleagues face and resolve personal issues. She has always lived in New York City. Now retired, she plays piano, sings with a chorus, and is a proud and loving aunt and great-aunt.

Diaz, Alden

Alden Diaz attended Reed College when he wrote to Mrs. Kennedy. He died in 1989.

DiGeorgio, Susan

Susan DiGeorgio earned advanced degrees in chemistry and pharmacy. She is the director of pharmacy at a mental health hospital. She also draws and paints and has shown her work at various locations in Connecticut.

Donnally, Mrs. Emma

Emma Donnally was born in August 1872 in West Virginia. She was married twice and died at the age of ninety-two in 1965 in Charleston, West Virginia. She is survived by several descendants.

Dryden, Jane

Jane Dryden’s father was a physician who had done his internship at Parkland Hospital. She recalls imagining as a child that her father might have been able to save President Kennedy had he been on duty on November 22. Ms. Dryden graduated from college, married a physician, and has three children. She is involved in pastoral care work and lives in Texas.

Dudley, Grace

Grace Dudley was thirteen when she wrote to Mrs. Kennedy. Today she is a veterinary technician and lives in Connecticut with her husband, where they raise, train, and exhibit purebred dogs as a hobby.

Dumais, Roland

Roland Dumais was born in September 1919. Originally from Somersworth, New Hampshire, he served in the Army Air Corps as a fighter pilot during World War II. Mr. Dumais was shot down over Austria and spent six months in a prison camp. After the war, he was a corporate pilot. He was the primary campaign copilot on John F. Kennedy’s private plane,
The Caroline
, during the 1960 Democratic presidential race, logging some 250,000 miles. He reported that he enjoyed the experience but also admitted that the pace was grueling. Mr. Dumais died in October 1972.

Emery, Harry T.

Harry T. Emery was born on February 23, 1915, one of five children, to a coal-mining engineer family and lived in Kentucky, Tennessee, and southern Illinois in coal-mining areas. He was a highly decorated Marine in World War II and worked for Field Packing Company in Chicago and later in the aircraft industry in California. He died in California at the age of seventy-five.

Emmitt, Tom

Tom Emmitt was a singer, composer, and conductor who played violin and viola, wrote criticism, and taught music. He changed careers in his forties when he started a family and became involved in mental health, spending the last twenty years of his professional life directing the Telecommunication Center for the California State Department of Health. He died in 1995.

Ernst, William and family

Fifteen months after composing the Ernst family letter to Mrs. Kennedy, William Ernst died suddenly of heart failure at the age of fifty-five, a condition, his son reports, “possibly induced by the rigors of his concentration camp incarceration.” Mr. Ernst served as a GI in the Third Army under General George S. Patton Jr. His son recalls that “driving Nazi forces back across France and pursuing them into the heart of Germany gave him great satisfaction and a sense of retribution. Ironically, he was able to participate in the liberation of the very concentration camp in which he had been held prisoner.” His wife, Pauline, died in 2005. His children, Katherine and Douglas, live in northern California.

Evers, Mrs. Medgar

Born in 1933 in Vicksburg, Mississippi, Myrlie Evers was a student at Alcorn A&M College when she met Medgar Evers. They were married in 1951 and moved to Jackson, Mississippi, in 1954. Mr. Evers served as state field secretary for the NAACP in Mississippi. Myrlie assisted him in his civil rights activities. They had three children. Mrs. Evers returned to college after her husband’s death and went on to remarry and have a full professional life. She served as director of consumer affairs for the Atlantic Richfield Company, served on the Los Angeles Board of Public Works, and as chairman of the NAACP between 1995 and 1998. She twice ran unsuccessfully for Congress and is the author of two books. She was actively involved in efforts to retry Byron De La Beckwith, a Ku Klux Klansman and long the suspected assassin of her husband. Beckwith was convicted of the crime in 1994, thirty-one years after Medgar Evers’s death.

Farquhar, Donald

Donald Farquhar was acting chief of industrial engineering at Electric Boat in Groton, Connecticut, and later acting director of industrial engineering at Sikorsky Aircraft in Stratford, Connecticut. He is the father of a son and a daughter. He coached softball and baseball in Ledyard/Groton, Connecticut, for thirty years. Today he remembers Kennedy’s Presidency as a time when “all the bitterness and divisiveness that is prevalent today” was absent.

Fiola, Mr. and Mrs. Roland A.

The Fiolas had seven children, three of whom were born after 1963. Mrs. Fiola worked as a school bus driver in the Los Angeles area for nearly thirty years. She
had rival gang members on her bus and gained their respect by learning each of their names and taking an interest in them as individuals. When her husband was killed on his job in 1989, several of these students rallied around her to provide support. Mrs. Fiola has eight grandchildren.

Floodas, Mr. and Mrs. John J.

Katherine Floodas remembers her husband as “a very deep person,” who “enjoyed fishing, camping, and reading about the history of our country. He would have been very happy that someone appreciated something he wrote. He passed away on January 13, 1991.”

Fowler, Dona

Dona Fowler’s brother recollects: “My sister was always the most interesting person I knew. You always knew where you stood with Dona. If you were worried about the answer to your question, that it might be completely opposite of your point of view; don’t ask my sister. She would always tell you exactly how she felt. The death of Robert Kennedy was devastating for my sister also.”

Gambardelli, Arthur

Arthur Gambardelli was blind from birth. He and his wife had no children. His nephew recalls that Mr. Gambardelli took a great interest in the Kennedys. He died in 1979.

Garfield, Rudolph

Rudolph Garfield, born in 1920, is the great-grandson of James A. Garfield, the twentieth President of the United States. A graduate of Williams College, Mr. Garfield had a career in business and finance. He has been a trustee of several educational institutions and was a founding trustee of the Hattie Larlham Foundation, which provides assistance to children and adults with major developmental and physical disabilities. He is the father of three children and resides in Cleveland Heights, Ohio. He observes, “In reading my note after all these years my thoughts have not changed.”

Gatewood, Chris K.

Christopher Gatewood was a furniture upholsterer who took an active interest in Democratic politics. He had two daughters and was the devoted grandfather of five. He died in 2003.

Geist, Mrs. Carroll A.

Widowed in 1971, Elizabeth Toland Geist was active in the PTA, with her church, and in the garden club. She had two sons, six grandchildren, and a great grandson. She died in 2001 and is remembered by her son as a “very positive person” who “tried to help all in need” and who was deeply devoted to her family.

Gidion, Gabriele

Gabriele Gidion lives in New York.

Givens, Ruby

Her daughter-in-law describes Mrs. Ruby Givens as a “a very prayerful mother” who raised ten children of her own as well as two other children in her community. Her second oldest daughter, Ruby, returned home safely from the U.S. Navy and went on to become a physical therapist. Her two oldest sons enlisted in the U.S. Army. One, who had previously served in Korea, was seriously wounded in Vietnam but recovered. Her family notes, “The actual biography of this caring woman and her children is an interesting book in itself.” When Mrs. Ruby Givens passed away in 1992, she was still living in the home she mentioned in her letter to Mrs. Kennedy.

Glassner, Mary

Mary Glassner was born in June 1917, lived in Kansas City, and then in Denver. She had two daughters and a son. She provided day care to countless children through the years and was known as “Big Mom”—a mother and friend to the many for whom she cared. She died at the age of ninety-one in May 2009.

Glimpse, Nancy, Kenneth, Rick, Brandon, and Perry

Nancy Glimpse was, in her words, “a thirty-year-old stay-at-home mom with three boys—six, five, and four months” when she wrote to Mrs. Kennedy. She divorced a few years later and remarried. She spent twenty years in Yuma, New Mexico, working as a banker, and retired to Alpine, Texas, with her husband, who has since passed away. “During our time together,” she recalls, “we water-skied, learned to fly, built a dune buggy named Myrtle, did some farming, lived full-time, and traveled in our travel trailer for several years, then spent a couple of years building a house.” She now lives in New Mexico.