Thelma and Lowell's Diary: June 8, 1943

Lowell continues disking; FDR has lunch with polio nurse Sister Elizabeth Kenny

Lowel wrote a bare two sentences in the diary today, the first dealing with which fields he had been disking, the second about going “over to Ralph’s in the evening.” I am still not sure who Ralph is. Donnabelle is Lowell’s only sibling. His mother is a widower, her husband having died in 1935 at age 39. Lowell would have been about 14 then, Donnabelle, 11.

Even with World War II raging, the fight against polio still occupied President Roosevelt. He had lunch today with Basil O’Connor, his former law partner, friend, and head of the March of Dimes, and the iconoclastic Australian nurse Sister Elizabeth Kenny. To learn about Sister Kenny, you’ll need to be a paid subscriber. Join the dedicated readers who can claim “Bootie” status by clicking below. Subscribe for a year and you’ll get an autographed copy of my biography Gertie: The Fabulous Life of Gertrude Sanford, Heiress, Explorer, Socialite, Spy.