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John F. Kennedy DAR Marriage Record

Currency:USD Category:Collectibles / Autographs Start Price:NA Estimated At:6,000.00 - 8,000.00 USD
John F. Kennedy DAR Marriage Record

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Auction Date:2017 Nov 08 @ 18:00 (UTC-5 : EST/CDT)
Location:236 Commercial St., Suite 100, Boston, Massachusetts, 02109, United States
ALS - Autograph Letter Signed
ANS - Autograph Note Signed
AQS - Autograph Quotation Signed
AMQS - Autograph Musical Quotation Signed
DS - Document Signed
FDC - First Day Cover
Inscribed - “Personalized”
ISP - Inscribed Signed Photograph
LS - Letter Signed
SP - Signed Photograph
TLS - Typed Letter Signed
Typed letter, one onionskin page, 8 x 10.5, June 18, 1962. Letter sent from the Berks County Chapter of the Daughters of the American Revolution to the National Society DAR in Washington. In full: “Kindly advise if in your Genealogical Records—Page 886 there is a record of President Kennedy being married to:—1. Durie Kerr and also 2. Blank or Blanch. Understand both marriages were annulled.” A penciled note stapled to the upper left denotes a related page number in their genealogical records. In fine condition, with rusty staple marks at top.

Rumors of a previous marriage to an heiress named Durie Kerr began to circulate in 1961–1962 when an item in an obscure book came to the attention of the right-wing press. A genealogical register of the Blauvelt family, compiled by Louis L. Blauvelt and privately published in 1957, noted that Kerr—the 12,427th entry in the book—had ‘married third, John F. Kennedy, son of Joseph P. Kennedy, one time Ambassador to England.’ Although Kennedy had gone on a couple of dates with her in the late 1940s, he denied that there was ever a serious relationship and called in his trusted friend Clark Clifford to handle the situation. Clifford—who, entirely coincidentally, also knew Kerr—tracked her down to inquire about it. She gave the same answer—they had gone out to eat and to a football game together, that was all—and signed an affidavit stating she had never been married to JFK. The rumor was not picked up by the mainstream press until after it had been publicly debunked by the administration, minimizing the damage it could have caused to Kennedy’s image.