Dad goes to his reward

At Arlington National Cemetery, my father

was committed to the earth on Oct. 29, 1998. First husband of recently written-up Ruth Elies of just-a-teenager dance band fame, he led overall a gallant life. He was with the 90th Infantry division on D-Day. He earlier was a high school band teacher, where he met my mother, a student during his first year out of teacher's college. After WW II he had an executive position with the Veterans Administration. Called to serve LBJ's government, Dad worked in the White House under the first Consumer Affairs Secretary, Esther Peterson, who was eventually succeeded by Betty Furness. (Westinghouse: "You can be sure, if it's Westinghouse!")

Then an attorney, he tutored the women in the newly formed department for their congressional testimonies and was the unsung inhabitant of the No. 2 position. Both women, though, did sing his praises when they retired; copies of letters they gave him are touching, and are in the files here at Raccoon headquarters.

When Hubert Humphrey was defeated in his presidential bid, dad, who was a close friend and co-worker of the happy warrior's, finished out his civil service with the FTC, and then went into private practice in Fairfax VA.

I was present at his interment at Arlington, and broke cortege ranks to step ahead and aside, to take this photo that was fortuitously well-lit. The upside down boots in the stirrups of the riderless horse do not show in this picture.