February 26 in A.A. History

In 1940, Bill W. replied [left] to John D. Rockefeller’s letter dated February 23, in which Rockefeller expressed his regret for being unable to attend the large dinner he had planned to host for A.A. (his son, Nelson, hosted in his stead).

Dear Mr. Rockefeller:
    On an occasion such as this one can seldom write as deeply as he feels.
    You and your friends have offered us the finest thing you could ever give—your confidence. To merit this trust, to meet the responsibilities, to fulfill the purposes implicit in that evening at the Union Club is our great desire. In no other way shall we ever be able to thank you.
    I hope you may always depend upon us for a good measure of discretion, true humility and simple faith in The Great Physician who has already brought us so far.
                                    Sincerely yours,
                                    <signed William G. Wilson>
                                        Wm. G. Wilson
                                             for
                                    Alcoholics Anonymous

In 1962, Warren C. of Canton, Ohio, a merchandising manager for Superior Dairy Co., shared his A.A. story at the Dover (Ohio) Kiwanis Club. The following day, his speech—attributed to him by full name—appeared at the bottom of page 1 in Dover’s newspaper, The Daily Reporter, under the title “Don’t Fluff Off The Alcoholic!”

In 1999, Felicia G. [right]—author of “Stars Don’t Fall” in the 2nd and 3rd editions of the Big Book, Alcoholics Anonymous—died at age 93. She was born in 1905 in Blansko, in what is now the Czech Republic, to the fortune-hunting Polish Count Józef G. and Chicago-born newspaper heiress Eleanor Medill Patterson, granddaughter of Joseph Medill, the founder of The Chicago Tribune.
    In 1908, her mother took her away after a violent fight with her father, who later kidnapped his daughter from London and placed her in a Russian convent. Her return required intervention from President-elect William Howard Taft with Czar Nicholas II.
    The “little Countess,” as the newspapers called her, married (1) Andrew Pearson—renowned as Drew Pearson, one of the best-known American columnists of his day, noted for his syndicated newspaper column “Washington Merry-Go-Round” and his NBC Radio program Drew Pearson Comments—in 1925, but divorced him three years later; (2) Dudley de Lavigne, an impoverished insurance broker, in 1934, a marriage that lasted less than a year; and (3) John Magruder, a landscape architect, in 1958, whom she divorced in 1964.
    For most of her professional career, she went by her maiden name. In her later years, she wrote for American magazines and newspapers, lived in New York and elsewhere, and authored novels and short stories. In her 1939 novel Flower of Smoke, the Austrian-American heroine famously declares, “Make your own peace, no matter what.”