A l u m n i
N e w s
Dear Young Friend: Letters from the Lees Y
by Betsy Butler, W&L exchange student, 1989-1990 Z
Oxford, Ohio, seems an unlikely place to find historical documents pertaining to the Lee family and Lexington, but that’s just where I discovered some remarkable letters written by Mary Randolph Custis Lee and her daughter, Mary Custis Lee. friends, Tait North Simmons ’91 and Teresa Williams Pope As special collections librarian at Miami University, in Oxford, I recently processed the Samuel Richey Collection of the ’93, which I continue to cherish today. Southern Confederacy, which includes telegrams, letters Whether returning to campus to attend a couple of and other handwritten documents that are exceptional priAlumni Colleges or stopping in the Lee Chapel & Museum mary resources for Civil War researchers. After days inventoen route to my frequent visits to Sweet Briar, I continue to rying detailed descriptions of troop movements, I breathed make pilgrimages to Lexington. In Ohio, working in my a sigh of relief when I came to a folder labeled “Lee, Mary secluded stacks during a quiet summer, coming across these Randolph Custis.” Lee family letters was a real event that I had to share with The sigh quickly became a smile when I saw that the fellow fans of Lexington and W&L. first letter in the folder was written from Lexington. I was on my way back to the Colonnade, ready to read something that YZ would transport me back to the Lees’ Lexington. Such activi ties as spotting Lexington bricks and making frequent stops On June 28, 1870, Mary Randolph Custis Lee caught for ice cream at Sweet Things featured prominently in the up on her correspondence to an unnamed correspontown I experienced as an exchange student from Sweet Briar dent, whom she called a “dear young friend.” She had College during the 1989-1990 academic year. just returned to Lexington from visiting her 16-month When I was a prospective student in high school, W&L old grandson (most likely Robert Edward Lee, the son of was high on my list of favorite colleges, but Sweet Briar was William Henry Fitzhugh Lee). Her husband, Robert E. Lee, the perfect place for a shy, studious product of 14 years of president of Washington College, was away on business, single-sex education to continue to after just having taken a Southern tour grow. The opportunity to spend my Coming across these Lee family to benefit his health. junior year in Lexington was appeal Thinking about her grandson, a ing, however, so while many of my letters was a real event that I “little fellow of fine physique” with Sweet Briar friends were having their “deep violet eyes and long dark lashes” own adventures overseas, I decided to had to share with fellow fans who “would be a splendid model for a finally experience coeducation “over of Lexington and W&L. sculptor,” prompted Mrs. Lee to report the mountain.” that sculptor Edward Valentine had I’ll admit, it all was a little overrecently completed a bust of her husYZ whelming. Attending an orientation band that was the best likeness of him session in Lee Chapel in which the president of the student she had seen. (Valentine, of course, created the statue of a body admonished first-year students for wearing ball caps recumbent Lee now housed in Lee Chapel; the bust that Mrs. indoors and for throwing a basketball across the balcony “in Lee referred to is now in the collection of Jack Warner ’40.) the presence of the General” is something I’ll never forget. “He was so anxious on the subject that I am rejoined But it was also entertaining, and it certainly was good for he has been so successful,” Mrs. Lee wrote. “If he is able to helping to bring me out of my shell. When I wasn’t reveling work it up in marble, it will be I think very fine, of course I in discovering what corn palaces were from Pamela Simpson, only saw the plaster cast. It is nearly a full face, the best view or sharing my interest in 19th-century European monarchs of the general’s face & head is nearly a profile.” with Dave Futch, I relished the companionship of my new (continued on next page) S u m m e r
3189b_09pg32-48.indd3 35
2 0 0 9
35
8/17/09 11:52:31 PM