#2-352

To Mrs. John B. Wilson1

January 27, 1941 Washington, D.C.

Dear Rose:

I have been on the verge of writing to you each day since my return from White Sulphur Springs the day after New Years, but events have developed too rapidly for me to turn to anything pleasant or personal.

I want particularly to thank you for the box of cookies, which were delicious and which Mrs. Marshall and I are still using for our afternoon tea when I come in from riding or from walking. Tell me where you bought them—I am assuming you did not make them.2

I have been hoping to receive a letter from you with some account of your settlement in New York, but as none has come I am now asking you to write. And so that you may not think I have neglected you, I will mention that I am due in ten minutes to leave here to appear before the Foreign Relations Committee on the famous “lend-lease” bill, so I am sandwiching this in between pretty important affairs of the world.

I had a fine ride in the Hall3 yesterday morning and a rather cold one out of doors Saturday afternoon, with a great deal of mud. Since you and Molly departed I have been riding alone, and it is a lonely business.

Molly seems to be on the top of the world in Panama and thrilled over setting up her own house. Fortunately, she knows how to cook and market.

I do hope John finds his new job all that he hoped for, and that you are happy in your new environment.

Affectionately,

G. C. M.

Document Copy Text Source: Rose P. Wilson Collection, George C. Marshall Research Library, Lexington, Virginia.

Document Format: Typed letter signed.

1. Rose Page Wilson, Marshall’s goddaughter, had recently moved to New York City; her husband had been hired as a tax expert for the Sperry Corporation on January 1, 1941. (Rose Page Wilson, General Marshall Remembered [Englewood Cliffs, N.J.: Prentice-Hall, 1968], p. 234.)

2. Mrs. Wilson had sent the Marshalls a box of moravian Christmas cookies as a present. (Ibid.)

3. The riding hall at Fort Myer.

Recommended Citation: ThePapers of George Catlett Marshall, ed.Larry I. Bland, Sharon Ritenour Stevens, and Clarence E. Wunderlin, Jr. (Lexington, Va.: The George C. Marshall Foundation, 1981– ). Electronic version based on The Papers of George Catlett Marshall, vol. 2, “We Cannot Delay,” July 1, 1939-December 6, 1941 (Baltimore and London: The Johns Hopkins University Press, 1986), pp. 398–399.