Yesterday I was doing an Goggle search on Marcel Proust when, somehow, I stumbled across the  Yes-Virginia-There-Is-A-Santa-Claus editorial that I subsequently posted.

I have always been interested in people who impact history in a major way and then disappear from popular view. Oskar Schindler comes to mind. Francis P. Church is another example. He wrote the response to Virginia that has become the most reprinted newspaper editorial of all time. His editorial has appeared in dozens of languages and has generated books, movies, television programs, posters, and stamps.

After graduating from Columbia University, Francis Church became a United States Civil War correspondent for the New York Times and had, for twenty years, worked as an editorial writer for the New York Sun when he got an assignment to write a response to Virginia O’Hanlon’s query.

The editorial was an immediate success. Shortly after the editorial was published Church, age 58, married, had no children and died nine years later in 1906, age 67. The New York Sun republished his editorial every Christmas until the paper went out of business in 1949.

Virginia O’Hanlon grew up to get a Bachelor of Arts degree from Hunter College, a Master’s from Columbia, and a doctorate in education from Fordham University before becoming a teacher and later a principle in the New York City school system. She married, had a daughter, Laura, and after 47 years as a educator retired. During her lifetime she received a steady stream of mail about her Santa Claus letter. She replied to all correspondents by sending a printed copy of the Church editorial. Virginia O’Hanlon Douglas died on May 13, 1971, age 81.

O’Hanlon didn’t think she had done anything special. She told her grandson, James Temple, “All I did was ask the question. Mr. Church’s editorial was so beautiful. It was Mr. Church who did something wonderful.” 

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Please comment. Any personal story you would like to share? Any ideas you would like to contribute? Any disagreements?