Thelma and Lowell's Diary: June 28, 1943

The Southerlands have a baby; Eleanor Roosevelt writes of war's heartache

Apparently Lowell exhausted himself with his long entry the day before, because he only wrote down his expenses today. But Thelma later added a one-line comment: “George Williard Southerland was born.” This is the son of their friends Ruth and Jim, who they went to the Sugar Bowl game with on New Year’s Day and socialize with frequently. (Actually, the baby’s middle name was Willard; Thelma misspelled it.) According to Ancestry.com, young George lived to be 78, dying in Signal Mountain, Tennessee just last year. This cute 1943 birth announcement, being offered on eBay, bears the inside message, “No wonder we’re crowing and making a fuss…A darling baby boy has just come to us!”

As the Southerlands welcomed their bouncing baby boy, many other American families were getting the sorrowful news that theirs had perished in the war. Eleanor Roosevelt wrote an especially poignant My Day column today about the terrible toll of war. To read on, you’ll need to be a paid subscriber. Upgrade by clicking below: