[PW] Grace Singer

[Tracy Carr]

A New York Times article from August 28, 1955 recounts this story for the
most part but with a few changes: the duaghter's name was Daisy Alexander;
the letter was written in 1937; it was found in Palo Alto; and most
interestingly, "[t]hus far, however, the finder has not been able to
collect, owing to legal entanglements, and the matter is being handled by
lawyers."

Tracy Carr
Mississippi Library Commission
tcarr at mlc.lib.ms.us

-----Original Message-----
From: project-wombat-bounces at lists.project-wombat.org
[mailto:project-wombat-bounces at lists.project-wombat.org] On Behalf Of
burchell at telusplanet.net
Sent: Tuesday, July 17, 2007 12:55 PM
To: list at project-wombat.org
Subject: [PW] Grace Singer

Hi!
Several years ago while on a long drive, I heard a story on the car radio,
purporting to be true, concerning Grace Singer, the heiress to the Singer
Sewing Machine Company fortune. In 1936 she threw a bottle containing a 
note into the Thames river from Westminster Bridge.The note stated that
whoever 
found the bottle would be entitled to one half of her inheritance.Thirteen 
years later, in 1949, as improbable as it sounds, the bottle washed up on a 
beach in San-Francisco. The supposition being that it had drifted through
the 
North-West Passage. It was found by an unemployed, 29 year-old restaurant 
worker. After a prolonged trial his entitlement was upheld. I recently
related 
this story to some friends and met with some disbelief and some questions.
To 
refresh my aging memory and confirm the details, I "Googled" various salient

details into the search menu and received zero, zip, nada that in any way 
related to the above story.  I felt sure that a story as dramatic as this,
if 
true, would be well represented. Once again I am relying on the
ever-faithful
Wombats, who have never failed me, for help.
Cheers
Jim


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