Among my other accomplishments during my two days at the FDR Presidential Library was bringing to life the story of how Claiborne met Nuala and then they married, all back in 1944, when Pell was recuperating in Newport from a case of undulant fever he contracted while serving in the Coast Guard in Italy. I knew the broad strokes, of course, from Nuala and Pell himself -- but the details, spelled out in letter exchanges with Pell's father, Herbert -- are now clear.
Here is a page from the Sept. 26, 1944, letter from Pell to his father in which he professes (for the first time to Herbert) his love for the young Nuala O'Donnell.
Pell writes:
Now comes a slight cough of introduction. Ha-rumph!!
I am really very much in love and expect to marry Nuala O'Donnell. I have been very sure myself but didn't say anything before since I didn't want to get you excited in case it didn't work out.
It did work out: They married in New York that December.
Image courtesy of the Franklin D. Roosevelt Presidential Library and Museum, Hyde Park, New York.
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