Lot 107
Kennedy John 1917 - 1963 Racy War-date ALS "Love Jack" - with original envelope signed "JFK" - to a young nurse he had met at the Naval Hospital in Chelsea, Mass., in 1944 while recuperating from back surgery following the PT 109 incident
Rare early Autograph Letter Signed "Love Jack," 3p, 3.5" x 2.5" note card, front and verso; one 3.5" x 5" card folded in half, with small hand-painted cactus in the lower right corner of the otherwise blank fourth page. With original 5" x 4" envelope, torn open at top edge, return address written by Kennedy in upper left, "JFK. / Castle Hot Springs Hotel / Castle Hot Springs / Arizona." Addressed by JFK to "Ensign Elenor Dooley / Nurses Home / U.S. Naval Hospital / Chelsea / Mass." 8¢ Airmail stamp affixed, postmarked in Castle Hot Springs, February 17, 1945. Noted by Kennedy in lower left "Airmail."
In full, "Dear Eleanor: I've been waiting to hear from you for some time, and your valentine (for which I thank you) let me know that you were still with us and not in defending your country's honor and your own - in the Philippines or some place like it. I still have great hopes that you will be coming out this way. If you do - please - I say again, please - let me know where you are going - for if it is near - I will come on the double. Try and take any leave you get on this end - as it is wonderful country and you would love it. Wonderful air - riding etc. and I think I'm getting in better shape - though it goes surprisingly slow. I am really living like the doctor ordered - and finding it a bit of a strain. Relax and write. I use this card as I thought the cactus expresses well my social life here. Love, Jack"
On June 12, 1944, at the Chelsea Naval Hospital, Lieutenant John F. Kennedy, USNR, was awarded the Navy and Marine Corps medal "for extremely heroic conduct as Commanding Officer of Motor Torpedo Boat 109 following the collision and sinking of that vessel in the Pacific War Area on August 1-2, 1943. Unmindful of personal danger, Lieutenant (then Lieutenant, junior grade) Kennedy unhesitatingly braved the difficulties and hazards of darkness to direct rescue operations, swimming many hours to secure aid and food after he had succeeded in getting his crew ashore. His outstanding courage, endurance and leadership contributed to the saving of several lives and were in keeping with the highest traditions of the United States Naval Service." The Medal was presented to John F. Kennedy by Capt. Frederick L. Conklin, Commandant of the Chelsea Naval Hospital. It was while he was at the Chelsea Naval Hospital for surgery in the summer of 1944, that the 27-year-old Navy Lieutenant met 24-year-old Navy nurse, Elinor Dooley.
Michael O'Brien wrote, in John F. Kennedy: A Biography" (New York: St. Martin's Press, 2005), "In their last report on Jack's health, in late November 1944, the doctors at the Chelsea Naval Hospital stated that Jack's recovery depended on a 'long period of rest in a secluded outdoor environment.' Jack and his father agreed; Jack should spend an indefinite period, perhaps as long as a year, resting in Arizona." In Arizona, Jack stayed at the Castle Hot Springs Hotel in Castle Hot Springs, a health spa leased by the U.S. military, from January to March 1945.
In 1947, Navy nurse Elinor Dooley (1920-2009) married Navy doctor Clyde J. Dawe (1920-1996).
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