From the Newseum...
Eight-year-old Virginia O'Hanlon wrote a letter to the editor of New York's Sun, and the quick response was printed as an unsigned editorial Sept. 21, 1897. The work of veteran newsman Francis Pharcellus Church has since become history's most reprinted newspaper editorial, appearing in part or whole in dozens of languages in books, movies, and other editorials, and on posters and stamps.
Francis Pharcellus Church...
He was born in Rochester, New York and graduated from Columbia College of Columbia University in New York City in 1859.
With his brother William Conant Church he established the Army and Navy Journal in 1863. He was a lead editorial writer on his brother's newspaper, the New York Sun, and it was in that capacity that he wrote his most famous editorial.
Church was a war correspondent during the Civil War, a time which saw great suffering and a corresponding lack of hope and faith in much of society. Although the paper ran the editorial in the seventh place on the editorial page its message was very moving to many people who read it.
Church died in New York City, aged 67, and was buried in Sleepy Hollow, New York. He had no children.
Virginia O'Hanlon (possibly on a bike from Santa)...
Virginia O'Hanlon was born on July 20, 1889 in Manhattan, New York. Her marriage to Edward Douglas in the 1910s was brief, and ended with his deserting her shortly before their child, Laura, was born.
Virginia received her Bachelor of Arts from Hunter College in 1910; a Master's degree in Education from Columbia University in 1912, and a doctorate from Fordham University. Virginia was a school teacher in the New York City School system and retired in 1959.
Throughout her life Virginia received a steady stream of mail about her letter. In an interview later in life, she credited the editorial with shaping the direction of her life quite positively.
Virginia died on May 13, 1971 in a nursing home in Valatie, New York.
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