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Uncle Eddie and the Mona Lisa

November 2009, by Jim Folliard

My Uncle Eddie, tall and gangly with a boyish smile, always appeared affable and easygoing. He wore a grey suit with a narrow tie to family affairs, usually Easter, Thanksgiving, and Christmas. He was normally in some other room talking with my parents, aunts, and uncles. Interaction with my age group (I was in my early teens) was minimal. There were no words of wisdom, no recommendations of which schools to attend or how to eventually succeed in life. Drinks and cigarettes were in abundance but just casual conversation prevailed.

It turns out that Uncle Eddie (Edward T. Folliard) was a famous political reporter and White House correspondent for The Washington Post. He covered presidents from Calvin Coolidge to Lyndon B. Johnson. He won a Pulitzer Prize in 1947 for national reporting, was president of the White House Correspondents Association, and, in 1970, was given the nation’s highest civilian award, the Presidential Medal of Freedom. It was said that his demeanor was unchanged in his public life and that he was on easy terms with everyone, including presidents.

Uncle Eddie was also a major part of an international event that came to mind during my recent stay in New York City. One day I was at the Hudson River, where the Intrepid and Circle Cruise Lines are located. It was along this waterfront, in December almost 47 years ago, that he arrived aboard the French superliner SS France at Pier 88. He had the privilege of accompanying the most famous portrait in the world, the Mona Lisa, on its only journey from France to the United States.

Uncle Eddie had worked hard for that “privilege.” Because of his lifelong interest in the Mona Lisa, he had approached the French ambassador in 1948 to see if the portrait could be loaned and displayed in the U.S. There was no encouragement at that time, but another opportunity occurred 14 years later. In May 1962, Andre Malraux, the French Minister of Cultural Affairs, was the guest of honor at an Overseas Writers luncheon in Washington, DC, and Uncle Eddie was in attendance. He asked Mr. Malraux if the United States could borrow the Mona Lisa. The timing turned out to be perfect. President and Mrs. John F. Kennedy were equally committed to enriching the cultural life of the country, so the influence of the White House was on his side. In a matter of months, the French government “confided” the painting by Leonardo da Vinci to the President of the United States.

After arriving in New York, Uncle Eddie convoyed the Mona Lisa through the police-barricaded Lincoln and 
Baltimore Harbor Tunnels and on to the National Gallery of Art in Washington, DC, where it was displayed and seen by almost 700,000 people. The Mona Lisa was then transported to the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York and was viewed there by more than one million admirers. It was returned to the Louvre in Paris on March 12, 1963.

I never knew about Uncle Eddie’s remarkable achievements until later in life. Since the mentality of yesteryear
was more rudimentary and the craving for celebrity 
status less profound, no one in the family had glorified or discussed his accomplishments. He walked with presidents and escorted the Mona Lisa to the U.S. but to me he was just the calm and cordial uncle in the grey suit. 
I don’t know how Uncle Eddie would be today in the age of Twitter, texting, and talk shows. My guess is that he would still be the personification of that rather simple philosophy -be on easy terms with everyone, including yourself. n

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