Description:

Franklin D. Roosevelt
[Washington, D.C.], May 17, 1939
Franklin D. Roosevelt TLS to Basil O'Connor With Ironic WWII and Polio Connection
TLS

A 1p typed letter signed by 32nd U.S. President Franklin D. Roosevelt (1882-1945) as "F.D.R." at center. May 17, 1939. [Washington, D.C.] The pale blue watermarked bifold paper features an embossed "The White House / Washington" letterhead. Hand-stamp docketed at upper right. Expected wear including flattened transmittal folds. The inner pages and outer leaf are blank. Else near fine. 7" x 8.875." Provenance: Ex-Charles Hamilton.

President Roosevelt sent the following message to his longtime friend Basil O'Connor (1892-1972), making sure to also include in the salutation Basil's wife Elvira O'Connor, and their daughter Elizabeth Ann "Betty Ann" O'Connor (1920-1961). In part: "July fifteenth is down on my calendar for the great day at Westhampton. I will be there if I possibly can…"

The "great day at Westhampton" referred to the upcoming wedding day of Betty Ann O'Connor
and Sidney Oliver Culver. On July 15, 1939, close family and friends gathered at "Snug Harbor," the O'Connors' summer retreat in Westhampton, Long Island, to witness the ceremony. President Roosevelt was unable to attend the wedding, as White House records show.

The Franklin D. Roosevelt Day by Day, A Project of the Pare Lorentz Center at the FDR Presidential Library, shows that FDR was very busy in the days immediately preceding the nuptials. On July 13th, a pernicious rumor spread that FDR and Secretary of State Cornell Hull had ideologically split over the U.S. neutrality issue in World War II. Roosevelt's late-night message to Congress, drafted after midnight early in the hours of July 14, 1939, urged the Senate Committee on Foreign Relations not to defer action on the neutrality issue, and also stressed that FDR and Hull were fully committed and on the same page. Later that day, FDR also met with two of his cabinet members (Secretary of the Interior Harold L. Ickes and Secretary of the Treasury Henry Morgenthau, Jr.), as well as with leaders from the American Federation of Labor, and worker's organizations representing electricians, metal workers, plasterers, bricklayers, and patternmakers. FDR was probably too exhausted to consider making the trip up to Long Island for July 15th. The day of Betty Ann's wedding, he instead stayed at the White House, meeting with Secretary of Commerce Jesse H. Jones, his private secretary Grace Tully, and members of his household.

Basil O'Connor was a New York lawyer who had befriended Roosevelt in the early 1920s. The pair managed their own law firm, Roosevelt & O'Connor, from 1924 to 1933. When he wasn't acting as Roosevelt's informal legal advisor as part of his famous Brain Trust, O'Connor expertly fundraised and supported various charities. O'Connor was one of the original contributors to the Georgia Warm Springs Foundation (GWSF) (now the Roosevelt Warm Springs Institute for Rehabilitation), the site of a natural hot spring rehabilitation center in Warm Springs, Georgia. O'Connor later sat on its Executive Committee and Board of Trustees and served as its president. At the time of Betty Ann's wedding, O'Connor was president of the National Foundation for Infantile Paralysis, the nonprofit organization founded by FDR in 1938 to combat polio.

Roosevelt frequently visited Warm Springs after first contracting polio in 1921; in fact, he dropped in almost every year between 1924-1945. In 1926, FDR purchased the springs, land, and buildings at Warm Springs. He collaborated with friends (including O'Connor) to establish the Georgia Warm Springs Foundation in 1927. The mission of the Foundation was to provide low-cost treatment to polio patients.

The letter contains an unexpected connection to polio by way of the bride, Betty Ann O'Connor. The mother of five was stricken with polio on July 16, 1950 - nearly 11 years to the day of her wedding anniversary - at the age of 30. Betty Ann later underwent treatment at the Georgia Warm Springs Foundation that Franklin D. Roosevelt and her father helped to create and manage.

This item comes with a Certificate from John Reznikoff, a premier authenticator for both major 3rd party authentication services, PSA and JSA (James Spence Authentications), as well as numerous auction houses.

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  • Dimensions: 7" x 8.875"
  • Medium: TLS

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