A Summer Road Trip

The Letters and Photos of Leon and Mary Grayson, 1941

Our maternal grandfather Leon Harman Grayson (1906-1993), a native of Savannah, Georgia, moved to Washington DC in June 1935. Our grandmother Mary Julia Bell Grayson (1909-2001) joined him that October. The couple preserved more than 100 of their letters and dozens more written to them by extended family. Perhaps 750 photos and negatives have also survived. Through these we are able to share in their adventures and hardships.

Death of Leon’s Father

Leon’s devoted father and most faithful correspondent Col. William L. Grayson (b. 1870) passed away March 31, 1941, and Leon and Mary returned to Savannah for the funeral. In late April Leon received a letter from Frank E. Hering, a distinguished faculty member and former athletic director at Notre Dame, co-founder of the Fraternal Order of Eagles, editor of their monthly magazine, and friend of the family. Col. Grayson served as National Grand Worthy President of the Eagles in 1915-16 and remained intimately involved with the order until his death. “Dear Leon: I am sincerely appreciative of your thoughtfulness in writing me. I am enclosing two copies of the eulogy I prepared for the May issue of THE MAGAZINE. I hope the article will meet with your approval. I found it difficult not to write as my heart felt. But, to outsiders, that would have seemed a bit overdone; so I had to write with a restrained pen…. I haven’t been in Washington for three years; but on the occasion of my next trip, you may be sure that I shall arrange to have you and Mary take dinner with me.” Frank Hering died in 1943 and is today remembered both as the “Father of Notre Dame Football” and the “Father of Mother’s Day.”

The Estate

Of Leon’s five surviving siblings, only older brother Spence and younger sister Edith, who postponed her marriage to to serve as her father’s primary caregiver, still lived full-time in Georgia. Older sisters Lynne and Dorothye were married to military officers while younger brother Bill was completing his training as a B-17 crewman in New Mexico. Lynne and Spence served as nominal co-executors of the widowed Col. Grayson’s estate, but it was Spence that sent a four page typewritten letter on onionskin carbon paper dated June 17, 1941, six weeks after the death of their father. Spence scrupulously wrote in first person plural multiple times within, i.e., “We have decided,” “It is our opinion,” and, most significantly, “We are inclosing [sic] herewith a check.” The letter indicates that Leon, Edith, and Bill had already drawn advances from their expected inheritance. The amount thus then sent to Leon was $3,177.81. Spence wrote to all, “I hope personally, and so does Lynne, that each one of you will conserve it to the utmost, because there will be very little cash to be distributed further until some sale of property may be affected [sic], at which a prompt distribution will be made. We all know that Dad worked awfully hard to acquire what he had and he meant for each of his children to use whatever he might leave them as a sort of ‘nest egg’ for a rainy day. Each of you has already received your full share.. of all stocks… and we urge each of you to, also, conserve those.” Leon’s older brother added a personal handwritten postscript: “Dear Leon, Please follow my advise [sic] & hold on to both cash & stocks – When it is gone it will never come back. Affectionately, Spence.” One wonders how Leon received this brotherly advice. Did he appreciate its sincerity, grit his teeth at its affected superiority, or was he too much a servant to his carefree nature to pay it any heed at all?

The Road Trip

Our grandparents Leon and Mary were life-long city dwellers, well acquainted with the streetcar and bus routes. They neither owned nor drove a car in all the years we knew them. They also never owned a home, their mutually generous and careless nature about finances likely an underlying reason for both facts. This openhandedness is plainly evident following the receipt of the $3,200 windfall. Among their photos are depictions of a 1941 Pontiac “Silver Streak” sedan (probable cost $1,000) and a two-week road trip up the East Coast. Among their papers are a matching automobile owner’s manual, receipts from iconic hotels in Atlantic City (Haddon Hall, July 19-21, $53.95), Manhattan (Hotel Pennsylvania, July 21-23, $16.34), Kennebunk Beach (Narragansett by the Sea, $29.70 check dated July 26), Quebec City (Chateau Frontenac, Jul 27-30, $76.39 including what seems to be a cash advance), and Albany (The DeWitt Clinton, Jul 31-Aug 1, $11.10). Where the couple stayed July 30 is unclear, as is whether they drove directly home from Albany.

The Return

Upon his return Leon received a letter dated July 17 from Gilbert E. Johnson, a friend and fellow lawyer who practiced in Savannah. Leon had apparently engaged Gilbert to work on his behalf on an unspecified case in their hometown. “I trust that your trip when completed will have been of much value in many ways to you and your wife,” wrote Gilbert. “I am sure you will have enjoyed it immensely.” The remainder of the letter pertained to the court case. We have a further letter from 1941, a September missive from another Savannah lawyer referencing what must be the same court case, “Estate of Alice H. Mack, Deceased.” No other letters from 1941 are in our possession, though events in December and into the spring of 1942 impacted the family directly and – in one particular – fatefully, as we shall see.