222 N. McLean St.
Lincoln, Illinois

17

LINCOLN,
DEC 20
3-PM
7945

The Hospitality Committee
of the
City of Lincoln 1953
Centennial Corporation

Request the Honor of
Your Presence

in

Lincoln, Illinois

For our

One Hundredth Birthday
Celebration

August 29 through September 6
1953

YOUR RESPONSE to this invitation will be greatly appreciated. Address Hospitality Committee, Lincoln, Illinois.

Ask Answers
To Invitations
For Centennial

Lincoln's Centennial celebration, while many may not have thought of it in that light, will be a homecoming. And from those who are not able to return for the big event starting Aug. 29, word is desired.

A thousand special invitations are being printed for former residents. The hospitality committee is asking but one thing in return for the Centennial invitations — an acknowledgement. Returns on the invitations will enable this committee to make definite plans for reserving of rooms for Centennial visitors. It will need to know how

many to arrange accommodations for.

It is being asked that those who receive the invitations but who are unable to attend, send a note of greeting — or perhaps even better, relate a short interesting incident they have enjoyed in relation with Lincoln, Ill. The Courier plans to reproduce these and for that reason asks the messages be written on only one side of the paper.

Relatives and friends are furnishing the names of former residents so they may receive the special Centennial invitations. They will be going to every state in the Union.

On the hospitality committee are Earl Madigan, chairman; Mrs. Charles H. Woods, Mrs. Adeline Hartnell and Miss Jane Whiteman. This committee is arranging for addressing the special Centennial invitations.

["Ask Answers\nFor Centennial\nTo Invitations", "many to arrange accommodations for.", "It is being asked that those who receive the invitations but who are unable to attend, send a note of invitation, relate a short interesting incident, and perhaps even petting — or perhaps even petting —

August 23, 1953

Miss Ethel F. Welch,
828 East Pekin Street,
Lincoln, Illinois.

Dear Miss Welch,

Please express to the Hospitality Committee of the City of Lincoln Centennial
my very great regrets at not being able to come to Lincoln for the Celebration.
Unfortunately, at this time I am hard at working meeting a deadline on a new
book which I must turn over to the publishers early in September. But Lincoln
holds a very warm spot in my heart for, as you know, it was there that I wrote
my first poem.

So, for Courier readers, some of whom were perhaps my classmates, I would like
to say that I can never forget Lincoln, Illinois, because in a sense my writing
career began there in the eighth grade when I was elected class poet. I had
never dreamed of writing a poem before. But with the helpful guidance of Miss
Ethel Welch, I wrote one that was well received at our graduation exercises.
And from that time on I kept right on writing poetry, through high school in
Cleveland, until the present. My first book of poems, The Weary Blues, was
published in 1926, ten years after I left Lincoln. And since that time, I have
published a dozen more volumes of poetry or prose. But I might never have been
a writer had I not gotten off to such an encouraging start at our school in
Lincoln, and had I not had the kindly interest and encouragement of Miss Welch,
Miss Laura Armstrong, and Miss Frances Dyer, all of whom still correspond with
me, and whom I count among the most prized of my friends.

All my good wishes to the Centennial Corporation and the City of Lincoln on
its One Hundredth Birthday Celebration.