October Legends and Americana Ending November 14th
This lot is closed for bidding. Bidding ended on 11/15/2015
(1) Mother’s Day card signed “Love xx / Lee,” 3.75” x 7” closed. On front: “For You, Mother, / on Mother’s Day,” picturing a motorcade of three cars, circa 1910s, filled with flowers. Printed inside: “Dear Mother, / as the years pass by / And seasons come and go / You keep on / growing dearer still / To everyone you know / And you’re wished / with deeper feeling / Than a message can express / A Mother’s Day that / brings you / Very special happiness!” Penned on verso in unidentified hand “Ex 266” – this was an exhibit in the Warren Commission report but the Commission decided not to publish exhibits 259-269.
(2) Original envelope, 7.25” x 4”, addressed by Lee Harvey Oswald to his mother “Mrs. M. Oswald / 313 Templeton Dr. / Fort Worth, / Texas.” 4¢ Abraham Lincoln stamp postmarked Santa Ana, California, May 7, 1959. Two plastic tape stains at blank edges. On verso, Mrs. Oswald has penned “Hon. Jim Wright / Congressman, / 12th Dist / House office Bldg,” “Hon [blank] Herter / U.S. State Dept / Wash / D.C.,” and, possibly in another hand, “Hon / Lyndon Johnston [sic] / U.S. Senator / Washington D.C.” Wright was Mrs. Oswald’s Congressman; Christian Herter had become Secretary of State on April 22, 1959. Lyndon Johnson was one of her two U.S. Senators who, ironically, succeeded to the presidency after her son assassinated Pres. Kennedy.
When he sent this Mother’s Day card in 1959, he was assigned to the Marine Corps Air Station at El Toro, California, near Santa Ana. Three months later, on August 17th, he submitted a request for a dependency discharge, on the ground that his mother needed his support. On September 11th, he was released from active duty and transferred to the Marine Corps Reserve. Two days later, Oswald was given an "undesirable discharge" from the Marine Corps Reserve. Lee returned to his mother's home in Ft. Worth, Texas. On September 14th, he told her that he planned to leave for New Orleans to resume employment with an import-export company, having worked in that field as a teenager prior to enlisting. On September 20, 1959, he set sail from New Orleans for France and on October 16, 1959, he was in Moscow. He wrote to his mother on October 22, 1959. Not hearing from her son for a few months, in March 1960, Mrs. Oswald wrote letters to her Congressman Jim Wright and Secretary of State Christian Herter trying to locate him. There is no record of her contacting her Sen. Lyndon Johnson.
(3) 1956 Christmas card to Lee Harvey Oswald signed “Love xxx / Mother,” 5” x 6” closed. Lightly creased. Plastic tape stains and slight paper loss at top edge. On front: “Christmas Greetings / to a Swell Somebody / It’s a ‘feather in my cap’ / To have someone like you.” Curiously, a rabbit wearing a real green feather in his cap, jacket and green scarf is depicted. Because of his slight build compared to other Marines, he was sometimes ridiculed. They nicknamed him Ozzie Rabbit, after the Disney cartoon character Oswald the Rabbit.
Lee Harvey Oswald had enlisted in the U.S. Marine Corps on October 24, 1956. Printed message inside: “To wish a / Merry Christmas / and a / Happy New Year / To!” Above the printed greeting, Mrs. Oswald has penned: “Hi—Your first Xmas away from home. Will miss you but happy to know you are in good hands. Be good. Mother.” She has also signed beneath the printed greeting: “Love xxx / Mother.”
Handwritten on verso, “A card I sent to Lee in 1956. In his sea-bag that he left at home after leaving the Marine’s in Sept 1959. Marguerite C. Oswald.” Also penned on verso in unidentified hand “Ex 268” – this was an exhibit in the Warren Commission Report but the Commission decided not to publish exhibits 259-269. Comes with letter of authenticity from University Archives.
This lot has a Reserve Price that has not been met.