ALS as president, one page on a 6.5 x 4 White House stationery card, no date. Letter to "Betty," in full: "Happy 100th birthday, from one Punahou graduate to another!" In very fine condition.
Barack Obama—then known as 'Barry'—graduated from Punahou School in Honolulu, Hawaii, as a member of the class of 1979. In his memoir, Dreams From My Father, Obama recalled how his grandfather pulled strings to get him in, and his family's pride in his attendance: 'For my grandparents, my admission into Punahou Academy heralded the start of something grand, an elevation in the family status that they took great pains to let everyone know.' The recipient of this letter was most probably Elizabeth Peet McIntosh (1915-2015), known as 'Betty,' a 1931 graduate of Punahou who served as an undercover agent for the OSS (the forerunner of the CIA) during World War II. As an operative, she waged a disinformation campaign through the distribution of fake reports, postcards, and documents designed to demoralize Japanese troops.
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