Description:

Armstrong Neil 1930 - 2012 Neil Armstrong thanks friends for supporting him after severed finger surgery

Transmitted Copy of a TLS (one signature a copy of course) on University of Cincinnati Department of Aerospace Engineering and Applied Mechanics letterhead with original dedication and signature "Mrs. Lyons - Thanks again - Neil A." in black ball point pen lower right corner. Dated May 9, 1979 and addressed to "Mrs. Leonard Lyons". In very fine condition, with isolated browning along bottom corners front and back. Letter measures 8.5" x 11".

This form letter was dispatched to hundreds of supporters who wished Neil Armstrong a speedy recovery following the successful reattachment of his left ring finger in 1979. In our letter, Armstrong personalizes it with a brief message to our recipient, Sylvia Lyons. Armstrong gives his well-wishers a medical update: "The replant was performed by Hand Surgery Associates of Louisville, Kentucky. The bone connection was just above the first joint of the left ring finger. The second joint was fused. Two arteries and five veins were joined by microsurgical techniques. Therapy has provided consistant [sic] improvement and I now enjoy considerable finger mobility and hope to be able to play golf by this summer".

Neil Armstrong (1930-2012) was no stranger to space and its study, gaining both applied and abstract experience as a Navy aviator, independent test pilot, NASA astronaut, and university professor. Armstrong retired from the space program shortly after his famous 1969 moon walk, and taught at the University of Cincinnati for eight years before resigning in 1979, the year that this letter was penned. Armstrong had been working on his Ohio farm when his wedding ring got caught in his truck wheel and the tip ripped off. Armstrong, nonplussed, gathered up the detached digit and preserved it in ice. It was later reattached by doctors, as described in this letter.

Sylvia Lyons was the widow of Leonard Lyons (1906-1976), a popular serial columnist who produced 12,000 mostly arts-related newspaper columns over a forty-year period published in the New York Post under the heading "The Lyon's Den". Leonard and Sylvia Lyons were a dynamic couple who knew dozens of actors, musicians, writers, and Hollywood personalities through Leonard's work as a journalist.

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