A WORLD WAR II VETERAN, AND QUITE A LADY
November 30th, 2009 | 10:59 am
Robert Edsel presents Mary Quessenberry with her copy of the Senate Gold Leaf Resolution which recognized all 350 Monuments Men and women from 13 nations, and an American flag that flew over the Capitol in her honor.
Monuments officer and Army Veteran, Mary Regan Quessenberry, is an extraordinary woman. 94 years young, in full possession of a remarkable memory, and blessed with a piercing sense of humor, this lovely lady provided my small team with a wonderful interview we will always cherish.
This was the third time I’ve been to Boston to visit Mary. We have become friends. She has so many of the characteristics I have witnessed in the other Monuments Men I have interviewed….gratitude, humility, keen sense of intelligence blended with a wisdom of the years.
Mary is the sole living connection back to the beginning of the Monuments Men efforts and those key people who had the vision that led to their creation. From Langdon Warner, the great scholar of Asian art and swashbuckling explorer, to Paul Sachs, the founder of the first museum studies course in America, to Mason Hammond, legendary professor of Classics at Harvard, Mary knew them all. We have been so fortunate to find her and record her memories and stories in time.
This illustrates the race with time with which we’ve been engaged these past 7 years…trying to locate those living witnesses and record their stories and gather their documents while they exist. With each discovery of someone like Mary, I wonder, will we be fortunate to find someone else?
