[Snapolit1]

That’s great info. I actually sort of suspected it was a woman’s writing. Appreciate that great info.


M

Originally Posted by BillyCoxDodgers3B

Thanks!

That's actually Stan's second wife's handwriting, as I expected. He delegated all the writing other than that of his own signature to her.

Interestingly, he married Mae Shivetts in 1915 and Frances Shivetts in 1924!

There's been a longstanding belief that Stan was illiterate for any purpose other than signing his name, but I have seen his handwriting which disproves that. One longtime dealer still stands by the illiteracy belief, but I'm 100% convinced otherwise. The Coveleski boys had limited schooling, but according to Stan, they each attended school for four years*. Enough time to learn how to read and write, albeit, perhaps, on a semi-functional level. Both men exhibited a laborious hand when writing, however, and each employed the assistance of their better halves with any writing, and sometimes even signing for them. While Stan at least signed more than 99% of his own autographs, Harry wasn't as good about it. It's my estimation that he only signed about 30% of the surviving mail request autographs that still exist. There are exceedingly fewer examples of Harry's autograph in existence than Stanley's, so my estimate is based purley on the number of pieces I've enountered over my lifetime of doing this.

My guess with Stan is that it was simply less taxing for Frances to do this work, so that's what was done. He could have very well felt embarrassed by his poor spelling. Apparently, Frances wasn't by hers! She was usually good for a spelling error or three herself. By the time he was inducted, he was already an old man, only to get more ancient over the ensuing 20+ years he graced the earth. With the flood of requests coming to his mailbox, I'm sure he didn't feel up to the task of writing and spelling. Signing thousands of things was enough. The second Mrs. Coveleski would even write his notes and letters for him earlier on. You don't see that many through the mail autograph requests dating pre-induction, but I've seen notes penned by Frances and signed by Stan dating back to at least the early 1950s if not prior.

*The data for the 4 years of schooling for the boys comes directly from HOF questionnaires filled out by Frances and signed by Stan--one for each brother. What's funny is that I had it firmly in my head that Stan told Ritter that he left school after first grade. I don't have my TGOTT at hand. Anyone care to corroborate or correct me?