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Autograph; 1 pages; Manuscript Letter from I. David Orr to Katherine "Kay" Evans (7.25" x 10.5") Toned at left and top edge. "January 28th, 1963 / Dear Mrs. Katherine Evans, / This note of thanks to you is long overdue / Your mention of me in the New York Herald Tribune (nov. 1, 1962) was highly / complimentary and did increase my prestige with my daughter. / However, the mention of a recent purchase price for a [Franz] Kline, while / being accurate raised my esteem with my wife in a totally / different manner. She multiplied the number of paintings in my / possession by the sum of $18,000.00 that made me a millionaire. She / then asked for an increase in her daily household requirements. / (Naturally, I talked her out of it, with some minor difficulties.) // The opening night was memorable to me. I was lonely, sad / and oblivious of the huge crowd. Only when I read your column People on Paintings / did I realize that I was present among the elite of our Capitol. // I don't recollect how we were introduced. You impressed me as a / most unassuming, modest and polite person. Your husband was equally / as nice. Little did I realize that I was talking to a columnist (I / kept away from the Press). Only when I phoned you on the following day did / I discover your connection with the Press! // In comparing reports, descriptions and comments of that / memorable evening - published in various newspapers, yours / was the best! It had humour, dignity, vividness and accuracy. / Please accept from me the enclosed book as a very pleasant / remembrance. / My best regards to your husband. / Sincerely / I. David Orr / 279 Linwwod Cove / Cedarhurst, L.I. /N.Y." Refers to the Franz Kline Memorial Exhibition at the Sidney Janis Gallery in New York City. Mr. I. David Orr, a successful Long Island based businessman, an accomplished amateur painter, and a brilliant art collector, began collecting art in 1929, concentrating on American artists, especially admiring George Inness, the Hudson School, and also a fierce patron of Franz Kline. Orr's was an eclectic collection based on his own discerning taste. PROVENANCE: Katherine "Kay" Winton Evans was a Washington writer and editor and with her husband political columnist Rowland Evans, Jr. a major figure in the social life of Georgetown, Washington, DC from the 1960s on. Mrs. Evans grew up in Minnesota outside Minneapolis on the shore of Lake Minnetonka; her father David J. Winton was president of the Winton Lumber Company. She graduated from the Putney School in Vermont and was a 1946 graduate of Vassar College, where she was editor of the Vassar Chronicle. After college she worked on the editorial page of The Minneapolis Times, and moved to Washington in 1948 where she met and married Rowland Evans, Jr., then a reporter for the Associated Press Washington Hill bureau. Mrs. Evans was on staff of Senator Hubert H. Humphrey and later for Senator Paul H. Douglas. In 1980 she became the managing editor of The Washington Journalism Review, a publication on the press and in 1983 became editor, a position she held until 1987. Mrs. Evans was a trustee for Vassar College for 15 years. Their home was the site of many memorable gatherings of influential and remarkable people from journalism, politics and general society over the decades from the 1960s to the 2000s. ; Signed by Author.
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