This week, we mourn the graduation (the death) of one of our family members. 

Leslie Lynch King, Jr. is the 17th cousin, four times removed, to President James Monroe.  President Monroe is my 31st cousin, twice removed.  The ancestors in common with President Monroe and me are Eystein Glumra and Aseda, ninth century Vikings of Norway.  They are President Monroe's 30th great grandparents, and my 32nd great grandparents.  President Monroe is the 18th cousin, seven times removed to my son-in-law, Steven O. Westmoreland.  The ancestors in common with Leslie Lynch King, Jr. and Monroe are Earl Edmund FitzAlan (1285-1326) and Alice de Warenne (1277-1338), who married in 1305.  They were King’s 20th great grandparents.  They were Monroe's 16th great grandparents.   

Leslie Lynch King, Jr. was born on July 14, 1913 at Omaha, Nebraska.  His parents, Leslie Lynch King and Dorothy Ayer Gardner, had been married on September 7, 1912 at Harvard, Illinois.  Just over two weeks after the birth of their son, Dorothy separated from her husband and took her infant son to her sister's home in Oak Park, Illinois and then to her parents home in Grand Rapids, Michigan.  On December 19, 1913 an Omaha, Nebraska court granted her a divorce.  

In 1917 Dorothy Ayer Gardner Lynch married Grand Rapids businessman Gerald Rudolph Ford and they soon began calling her son Gerald Rudolph Ford, Jr., although his name was not legally changed until December 3, 1935.  Gerald, of course, became a United States Senator from Michigan.  Next, he became Vice President and President of the United States.  He was the only United States President born in Nebraska, the only one whose parents were divorced, and the only President who was adopted and had a change of name and he was the only person ever to be a Vice President and a President, having never been elected to either office   He was 93 at his death, making him the longest living former president, surpassing Ronald Reagan, who died in 2004, by just over a month.  He was at his home in Rancho Mirage when he graduated.  His 1974 bid to be elected President, which failed at the hands of Jimmy Carter, was the first election in which I began my political career by serving as an Election Judge in that election in University City, Saint Louis County, Missouri!

Keeping you posted on History,

D. A.

Dwight Albert Sharpe
805 Derting Road East
Aurora, TX 76078-3712

H:    817-638-5560
C:    817-504-6408  Suzanne
C:    817-504-6508  D. A.

Personal Web Site:    www.dasharpe.com