Eisenhower, Dwight D. Photograph signed ("Dwight D. Eisenhower")....

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$7,995.00 Bid Source: Internet bidder

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Eisenhower, Dwight D. Photograph signed ("Dwight D. Eisenhower"). Eisenhower, Dwight D. Photograph signed ("Dwight D. Eisenhower"), (8 x 10 in.; 203 x 254 mm.), a handsome & youthful black & white portrait of General Eisenhower dressed in his military uniform, boldly inscribed in the lower white margin, "To Captain Kay Summersby - W.A.C. A valued assistant of World War II; with best wishes Dwight D Eisenhower". Extremely rare signed photograph of General Dwight D. Eisenhower inscribed to his military secretary & chauffeuse, Kay Summersby, with whom he allegedly had an affair during his three-year absence from Mamie Eisenhower during WWII. Carrying out his duties as commander of the U.S. forces in Europe, General Dwight D. Eisenhower flew to England in June 1942. By the end of the summer, he was in command of the allied forces for Operation Torch, the code-name for the Anglo-American invasion of Northwest Africa (November, 1942). At the end of November 1942, Eisenhower established headquarters in Algiers, only a few weeks after Operation Torch was launched. From his headquarters there, and from his other foreign posts, Eisenhower wrote many love letters to his wife, who was back in the United States staying at the Wardman Park Hotel (Washington, D.C.). After the Allied success in Africa, Eisenhower was also given responsibility for Operation Overlord, the code-name for the Allied cross-Channel invasion of France (June, 1944). During this whole period - for over three years - Eisenhower was to be away from his wife. In September 1945, Ike invited his wife to join him in Europe. She refused, due to the rumors that surfaced regarding her husband's alleged intimacy with his English chauffeuse, Kay Summersby. In May 1942, Kay Summersby was first assigned to drive Eisenhower and Mark Clark during a 10-day visit to London. The next month, Eisenhower requested Summersby as his personal driver. At this time, Summersby was engaged to an American, Colonel Richard Arnold; he was killed in North Africa. During the war, Summersby rose from driver to personal secretary and military aide, working in both the African and European theaters. By now, it is common knowledge that Eisenhower was having an "extra-marital affair" (probably unconsummated) with his secretary, Kay Summersby. The extent of their personal relationship had been rumored for years, but was not confirmed until Summersby wrote of it in her memoir Past Forgetting: My Love Affair with Dwight D. Eisenhower (New York, 1976). In Eisenhower's own published account of his war years, Crusade in Europe (Garden City, 1946), he mentions Summersby only once: Kay Summersby was corresponding secretary and doubled as a driver. (p. 133). After Eisenhower left Europe after the war, he never saw Summersby again. A rare and desirable association.