Note: This post is not paywalled. Enjoy! — Paul
When president John F. Kennedy was assassinated in 1963, countless Americans sent condolence letters and cards to the White House. Jacqueline Kennedy acknowledged these communiqués with a card of appreciation. One of those cards — the one shown above — was sent to Rose Wesolowicz of Detroit. It was contained in this envelope:
Those photos were taken by IC reader Katrina Ohlemacher. Her wife, Anne Cahalan, is Rose Wesolowicz’s great-niece. “Aunt Rose was a nice Catholic lady,” Katrina explained to me. “She treated national political figures like her friends and neighbors, sending congratulation and condolence cards when appropriate.” Many of those personages sent responses, which Rose saved and eventually gave to Anne, so Anne and Katrina now have a very niche-specific collection: acknowledgments of condolence letters.
The Kennedy clan is particularly well represented in the collection. When family matriarch Rose Kennedy died in 1995, Aunt Rose (who by this time had married and changed her surname to Zarkowski) sent condolences, which prompted this response:
Rose and her husband, Chet, also sent a note to the Kennedys when when Jackie O died in 1994, leading to a rather bland response and a very disappointing envelope with a mortifying Bulk Rate stamp:
Aunt Rose’s sympathies were nonpartisan. When former president Richard Nixon died in 1994 (the mid-’90s were apparently a busy time for political deaths), she sent her regards and received this response, signed by Nixon’s two daughters, Tricia Nixon Cox and Julie Nixon Eisenhower:
Speaking of the mid-1990s: First Lady Hillary Clinton’s father, Hugh Rodham, died in 1993, followed a year later by Bill Clinton’s mother, Virginia Clinton Kelley. Rose sent her condolences to the White House in both instances and received these near-identical responses (Hugh Rodham card and envelope first, followed by the Virginia Kelley card and envelope):
Interestingly, when Rose sent condolences after Ronald Reagan’s death in 2004, Nancy Reagan responded with a letter, rather than a card:
That envelope has a special bonus — a Post-it with a note that Aunt Rose provided when she gave the envelope to Anne:
What an amazing collection! Rose died in 2012, but her spirit lives on in these artifacts. They tell us a lot about Rose, even though they were all sent by other people.
I’m lucky enough to have seen these materials up close, because Anne and Katrina, who live in Michigan, recently visited New York and brought the collection to a meet-up with me at a local tavern. Here they are holding the card and envelope from Jacqueline Kennedy:
As you know, I love mail almost as much as I love collections, so this topic is right in my wheelhouse. Meeting Anne and Katrina in person made it all even better. Big thanks to them, and also, of course, to Aunt Rose, who sounds like she was a very special lady. R.I.P.
Inconspicuous News Roundup
Remember my epic look at color-coded butter packaging? If so, you can imagine how excited I was to see the Halloween costume shown above. Sure enough, blue for salted!
Here’s an album for storing matchbooks — and it’s shaped like a giant matchbook!
Harley Spiller sent in an excellent pointing hand, as seen on a package he received from Panama. The weird thing is that if the typography on the hand is right side up, the hand itself is upside-down, and vicey-versey:
Our latest stick figures in peril come from reader Austin Gillis:
Paul Lukas has been obsessing over the inconspicuous for most of his life, and has been writing about those obsessions for more than 30 years. He also writes Uni Watch, which is sort of like Inconspicuous Consumption for sports. You can contact him here.
Aunt Rose's handwriting is excellent!
Any idea about the history/identity of the coat of arms on the Jackie Kennedy card?