Replies to This Discussion

Permalink Reply by Rich on January 22, 2014 at 8:15am

Thomas, you may want to start a new thread and post an image of the autograph in question.

Permalink Reply by Thomas Bentley on January 22, 2014 at 8:25am

Attached is the letter I have from John F. Kennedy, although It doesn't seem to look like others I have seen online I cannot understand how it could not be real given this was my Grandmothers and my grandpa was Casket Bearer.

Attachments: No photo uploads here

• scan0004.pdf, 1.1 MB

Permalink Reply by Rich on January 22, 2014 at 8:39am

While I admittedly know fairly little about US president autographs, in addition to the autograph looking completely different than authentic examples, it's hard to fathom that President Kennedy would hand write out the entire content of the letter - including the letterhead.

Permalink Reply by Thomas Bentley on January 22, 2014 at 8:44am

Well it does seem odd but at the same time my grandma lived to the age of 106 and I have the Memorial announcement showing my Grandfather as a Casket Bearer as well as newspaper clippings of how he lived in Fairbank IA. near my grandparents.

Permalink Reply by James Stone on January 22, 2014 at 9:10am

Although you are unlikely to believe me, that is not real. Without a doubt. It looks nothing at all like JFK's handwriting or signature. JFK had sloppy and illegible handwriting. That doesn't take away from your grandfather;s service. But JFK was a busy busy man, and he had little time to sign stuff much less write out very long letters to everyone. It's also not on White house stationary. Basically any letter coming from the White house or from JFK at that time would be on WH stationary I do believe.

Permalink Reply by Thomas Bentley on January 22, 2014 at 9:23am

Who would you figure would write such a letter?

Permalink Reply by Rich on January 22, 2014 at 9:54am

Good question.  I guess without knowing how she received it, we'd have to speculate on who would have written it and why.   I'm guessing the signature doesn't match up with any secretarial version, and even that would presumably be on White House stationary.

Permalink Reply by Rich on January 22, 2014 at 9:21am

Do you happen to know how this was delivered?  It doesn't quite look like it was folded to go inside of an envelope.

Permalink Reply by Thomas Bentley on January 22, 2014 at 9:39am

Rich,

This was all in a box that was in my grandmothers home when she passed away

Tom

Attachments: No photo uploads here

• scan0005.pdf, 2.1 MB

Permalink Reply by Thomas Bentley on January 22, 2014 at 9:46am

Rich,

This is the correct Memorial announcement sorry.

Tom Bentley

Attachments: No photo uploads here

• scan0006.pdf, 627 KB

Permalink Reply by Thomas Bentley on January 22, 2014 at 11:00am

Rich,

Did you see the attachments??

Tom Bentley

Permalink Reply by Rich on January 22, 2014 at 11:08am

I did, but unfortunately they don't really say a whole lot about the nature of the letter itself, other than the newspaper apparently thought it was real.

I considered the possibility that maybe the letter you have is a copied version of another letter, perhaps copied so that the newspaper could print the text of the letter without taking the real letter from your grandma.

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