<--PREV Doc #23  |  Memorial Commission Home Page  |  First Term Table of Contents  |  Presidential Papers Home Page  |  Doc#  |  NEXT--> Doc #25 Document #24; February 7, 1953 To Edgar Newton Eisenhower Series: EM, AWF, Name Series The Papers of Dwight David Eisenhower, Volume XIV - The Presidency: The Middle Way Part I: Charting a New Course; January 1953 to April 1953 Chapter 1: Developing a spirit of teamwork   Dear Ed: Before I attempt to answer your letter of the second,1 I must tell you of one of the greatest tragedies that has yet happened to me since inauguration day--even including my bout with the flu. It is now 11:30 Saturday morning. All week long my staff has worked faithfully with me to keep Saturday afternoon free for me to play golf. I woke up this morning to find a drizzly cold rain, which still persists. I am just about to make an abject surrender to the elements, and take an hour off to feel sorry for myself. As of this moment, I am desperately trying to keep free the week right after the Masters to go down to Augusta with Mamie.2 It just occurred to me that I do not know the date of the Masters this year, and I have put in a call to New York to see if I can find out. Maybe I will know before I finish this letter. In any event, I shall not be going to the Lambs Gambol (I believe they call it that) but within a matter of a week or so should be able to give you a rather accurate guess as to my ability to make the Augusta date.3 It is only two hours by air from Washington and so even if I had to come back for some inescapable engagement, I could come up one afternoon and then go back there the following morning. As far as the Governors Conference in July is concerned, your letter gives me my first news of it.4 But I intend always to carry a set of golf clubs and a fishing rod in the airplane so that if appropriate opportunity offers, I can quickly take advantage to do a little golf or fishing according to the desires of my friends in any locality in which I might land. I am delighted that in retrospect your trip to Washington looks more attractive than it did while you were experiencing it. I tried, as well as I could, to give friends and relatives some preconception of what Washington is like during one of these periods, but at the same time I would have been bitterly disappointed had my brothers not been here.5 So, of course, I didn't try discouraging any of you. I do assure you that I appreciate you coming--in fact, I meant a couple of weeks ago to write a note to you expressing these sentiments--and if I failed to do so, it was just pressure of business that made me overlook it. It is tragic that one of the in-laws always seems to upset the rest of us and create a disturbance that influences the whole gathering. This I thought was particularly unfortunate for me during this last meeting because of the very few moments that were mine to spend with my family. I guess the old gal will never learn--but I do think it is really something on the order of a nervous disease rather than real intent. Give my love to Lucy, as well as to Janice and her nice family.6 All the best to you, and again I assure you that as soon as I can firm up some plans for early April I shall let you know. Devotedly P.S. I just had a report on my call to Bill Robinson7 and find that he is vacationing in a spot in Florida where he does not even have a telephone--but I should say this if the tournament is over by the tenth or eleventh of April my chances of putting in a week there ought to be very good. 1 The President's elder brother, senior member of a Tacoma, Washington, law firm (see Galambos, NATO and the Campaign of 1952, no. 24), had written on February 2 to discuss plans for a visit he hoped to make to the East Coast (letter in AWF/N; see below). 2 Eisenhower had for several years been associated with the Augusta National Golf Club, Augusta, Georgia (see Galambos, Columbia University). In early April of each year the club sponsored the Masters Tournament, one of professional golfing's most prestigious events (Galambos, NATO and the Campaign of 1952, no. 113). The 1953 tournament was scheduled to begin April 9 and run four days. 3 Edgar's letter reported on a dinner conversation with bandleader Fred Waring, who had invited Edgar and his wife to New York for a meeting of the "Lambs Club" (see Galambos, Columbia University, no. 721) on April 11 and then to Augusta for golf. Edgar had encouraged his brother to make the mid-April golfing date and wrote that he would travel east only if they could rendezvous at Augusta. For developments see no. 37. 4 "There is a very strong report that the Governors of the country will meet in Seattle in July," Edgar had written, "and that you may attend the meeting. If you do, would it be possible for us to have a golf game on that occasion?" For developments see no. 349. 5 The President's four living brothers--Arthur, Edgar, Earl, and Milton--and their wives, along with other members of the Eisenhower and Doud families, had assembled for the inauguration at the Statler Hotel. On January 19 male members of the clan had celebrated Edgar's sixty-fourth birthday at a party held in the hotel's Potomac Room. 6 Edgar's wife, Lucille Dawson Eisenhower, had served as a delegate to the 1952 Republican National Convention (see Galambos, NATO and the Campaign of 1952, no. 843); Edgar and Lucille's daughter was Janis Eisenhower Causin. 7 William Edward Robinson, executive vice-president and director of the New York Herald Tribune, an old friend of Eisenhower and one of his most trusted political advisers (for background see Eisenhower Papers, vols. VI-XIII). Bibliographic reference to this document: Eisenhower, Dwight D. To Edgar Newton Eisenhower, 7 February 1953. In The Papers of Dwight David Eisenhower, ed. L. Galambos and D. van Ee, doc. 24. World Wide Web facsimile by The Dwight D. Eisenhower Memorial Commission of the print edition; Baltimore, MD: The Johns Hopkins University Press, 1996, http://www.eisenhowermemorial.org/presidential-papers/first-term/documents/24.cfm <--PREV Doc #23  |  Memorial Commission Home Page  |  First Term Table of Contents  |  Presidential Papers Home Page  |  Doc#  |  NEXT--> Doc #25

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