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THE PROPERTY OF A GENTLEMAN
ROOSEVELT, Franklin D. Photographic portrait, by Harris & Ewing, signed and inscribed on D-Day: “For Kay Summersby with my thanks and very warm regards. Franklin D. Roosevelt June 6 1944.” Black and white print, 12 7/8 x 9 3/8in., inscribed along lower edge.
Details
ROOSEVELT, Franklin D. Photographic portrait, by Harris & Ewing, signed and inscribed on D-Day: “For Kay Summersby with my thanks and very warm regards. Franklin D. Roosevelt June 6 1944.” Black and white print, 12 7/8 x 9 3/8in., inscribed along lower edge.
AN HISTORIC ASSOCIATION, AS FDR INSCRIBES THIS FINE PRESIDENTIAL PORTRAIT TO GENERAL EISENHOWER’S DRIVER AND WARTIME CONFIDANTE, on the same day that Eisenhower oversaw the massive Allied landings in Normandy. Summersby (1908-1975) became Eisenhower’s driver in 1942, and was often by his side in press photos and during official visits. Years after the war, former President Truman claimed that Ike had to be threatened with dismissal to keep from divorcing his wife Mamie and marrying Summersby, though no other corroboration for that story has ever appeared. In the first of two memoirs she published, Summersby claimed there was only a professional relationship between her and Eisenhower. But in 1973, ill from lung cancer, she frankly avowed an affair, although unconsummated. As one recent biographer writes, "the nature of their relationship was probably less than she claimed, but more than he acknowledged" (G. Perret, Eisenhower, 1999).
AN HISTORIC ASSOCIATION, AS FDR INSCRIBES THIS FINE PRESIDENTIAL PORTRAIT TO GENERAL EISENHOWER’S DRIVER AND WARTIME CONFIDANTE, on the same day that Eisenhower oversaw the massive Allied landings in Normandy. Summersby (1908-1975) became Eisenhower’s driver in 1942, and was often by his side in press photos and during official visits. Years after the war, former President Truman claimed that Ike had to be threatened with dismissal to keep from divorcing his wife Mamie and marrying Summersby, though no other corroboration for that story has ever appeared. In the first of two memoirs she published, Summersby claimed there was only a professional relationship between her and Eisenhower. But in 1973, ill from lung cancer, she frankly avowed an affair, although unconsummated. As one recent biographer writes, "the nature of their relationship was probably less than she claimed, but more than he acknowledged" (G. Perret, Eisenhower, 1999).