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Remarkable matte-finish 8 x 10 portrait of Dwight D. Eisenhower in his five-star general's uniform, neatly signed and inscribed in the lower border in fountain pen, "To Captain Kay Summersby—W.A.C., a valued assistant of World War II; with best wishes, Dwight D. Eisenhower." In fine condition, with light silvering to the darker areas of the image.
When Britain entered World War II in 1939, Kay Summersby joined the British Mechanised Transport Corps (MTC), driving an ambulance throughout the London Blitz in 1940–41, then assigned as a chauffeur to visiting dignitaries. In May 1942, she was assigned to drive Dwight D. Eisenhower and Mark W. Clark during their ten-day visit to London. The next month, Eisenhower requested Summersby as his personal driver. As the war progressed, Summersby rose from driver to personal secretary and military aide; Eisenhower helped her to become a citizen of the United States and a commissioned officer in the US Women's Army Corps (WACs).
Though the extent of their intimate relationship is a subject of debate, Summersby's ghostwritten 1975 memoir—Past Forgetting: My Love Affair with Dwight D. Eisenhower—documents an unconsummated extramarital affair. Their romance goes unmentioned in her earlier book, Eisenhower Was My Boss, published in 1948 with this inscribed portrait reproduced as its frontispiece. Early editions of both books are included.
In Eisenhower's own account of his war years, Crusade in Europe, he mentions Summersby only once: 'Kay Summersby was corresponding secretary and doubled as a driver.' After Eisenhower left Europe, he never saw her again. A unique, desirable association.
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