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V11 2008 INDEX
E-SYLUM ARCHIVE
QUERY: WHERE IS THE GOLD COIN CLARE BOOTHE LUCE GAVE TO JFK?
An E-Sylum reader forwarded this story about a gold good
luck coin given to John F. Kennedy by Clare Boothe Luce. Does anyone know
what ever became of this coin? -Editor
In 1942, John F. Kennedy
entered the United States Navy to join American forces fighting in World
War II. Prior to his departure, playwright Clare Boothe Luce, a close
friend of the Kennedy family, sent the young naval officer a good luck
coin that once belonged to her mother. On September 29, 1942, Kennedy
wrote to Luce thanking her for sharing such an important token with him.
In the summer of 1943, Lieutenant "Jack" Kennedy commanded a PT boat operating against the Japanese near the island of New Georgia in the Pacific. One night Kennedy's boat was rammed and cut in two by a Japanese destroyer. Although injured during the attack, Kennedy and most of his crew survived.
A few months later, Kennedy again wrote to Luce. With his note he enclosed a gadget, originally intended to be a letter opener, made "from a Jap 51 cal. bullet and the steel from a fitting on my boat, part of which drifted onto an island." He concluded the note with a word of thanks for Luce's earlier gift:
With it goes my sincere thanks for your good-luck piece,
which did service above and beyond its routine duties during a rather busy
period.
To read the complete article, see: Today in History: September 29 (http://memory.loc.gov/ammem/today/sep29.html)
Wayne Homren, Editor
The Numismatic Bibliomania Society is a non-profit organization promoting numismatic literature. See our web site at coinbooks.org.
To submit items for publication in The E-Sylum, write to the Editor at this address: whomren@gmail.com
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