Author Archives: Philip E Jenks

Winston Churchill’s death 49 years ago January 24 corresponded with my Air Force assignment to a three-year tour at RAF Bentwaters/Woodbridge in Suffolk. The cabbie took me past Buckingham Palace, where the Union Jack was lowered in Churchill’s honor but … Continue reading →

Harry Truman – another politician who corresponded with admirers long after he needed to win votes – was inaugurated 65 years ago January 20.

In January 1962 (or thereabouts) I wrote to Eleanor Roosevelt to interview her for “Smoke Signals,” the mimeographed student newspaper of Morrisville-Eaton Central School. I sent her seven questions and she responded in due time with seven typewritten answers. Historians … Continue reading →

52-year-old New Years greetings from Eleanor Roosevelt, probably typed herself, 11 months before she died. It was a gracious endorsement of one of my more quixotic efforts. To get into the Congressional Page school, one needed passing grades in math … Continue reading →

Fifteen years ago Martha M. Cruz and I were sitting in the hall when Nelson Mandela entered to address the 8th assembly of the World Council of Churches in Harare. The delegates gave him a standing ovation. He was a … Continue reading →

November 22, 1963. I am 17 years old and I am walking into my high school homeroom. Several students with stricken faces are gathered around the teacher, Mr. Nickel, who quietly repeats the same sentence every time someone else joins … Continue reading →

Veterans Day 2013. It intimidated the Baader Meinhof Complex when we dressed as Greyhound Bus Drivers.

I found this decaying clipping in the attic this afternoon and quickly scanned it before the paper flaked away. The clip is from the Mid-York Weekly, circa January 1964. Brother Larry Jenks and I are shown introducing snow to a … Continue reading →

My summer reading has included several biographies of the Roosevelts, most recently No Ordinary Time by Doris Kearns Goodwin. These books show another side of the Greatest Generation: widespread racial prejudice, anti-Semitism, sexism, xenophobia, and other social blights that hindered … Continue reading →

Rep. William H. Gray III, August 20, 1941 – July 1, 2013. A memory: In 1987, Bill, a Philadelphia congressperson, was breakfasting with American Baptist sisters and brothers on Capitol Hill. Evangelist Oral Roberts had just announced he would die … Continue reading →