Virginia O'Hanlon
ââ Laura Virginia O'Hanlon Douglas, known as Virginia O'Hanlon, was the eight-year-old girl who wrote in 1897 to The New York Sun asking if Santa Claus is real. The editorial reply to the letter was written by general editor Francis Pharcellus Church (1839-1906) and is possibly the most famous editorial in American history.[1]
| Laura Virginia O'Hanlon Douglasââ
(The girl behind the 1897 "Yes, Virginia, there is a Santa Claus" editorial in The New York Sun; later a New York City educator | |||
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| Born | July 20, 1889 Manhattan, New York City | ||
| Died | May 13, 1971 (aged 81) Valatie, Columbia County, New York Resting place: | ||
| Spouse | Edwin Malcolm Douglas (married 1913, divorced) One daughter: | ||
Virginia wrote in the letter that her father, Dr. Philip F. O'Hanlon (1863-1937), a coroner's assistant, said that if she could see the requested reply in print, then she could believe of the existence of Santa. Hence, "Yes, Virginia, there is a Santa Claus" has long since become a classic story of the season. Actor Charles Bronson (1921-2003) played Church in a 1991 television film about the famous letter. In 1974, ABC aired an animated television special about Virginia.
Church replied to Virginia:
Virginia, your little friends are wrong. They have been affected by the skepticism of a skeptical age. They do not believe except they see. They think that nothing can be which is not comprehensible by their little minds. All minds, Virginia, whether they be menâs or childrenâs, are little. In this great universe of ours man is a mere insect, an ant, in his intellect, as compared with the boundless world about him, as measured by the intelligence capable of grasping the whole of truth and knowledge.
Yes, Virginia, there is a Santa Claus. He exists as certainly as love and generosity and devotion exist, and you know that they abound and give to your life its highest beauty and joy.⦠[2]
O'Hanlon lived in the Upper West Side of the Manhattan borough at 115 West 95th Street at the time here letter was written. As an adult, she became a classroom teacher and principal for a total of forty-seven years in the public schools of New York City. She held a doctorate from Fordham University. Her 1913 marriage to Edwin Malcolm Douglas (1887-1939), ended quickly in divorce. The couple had a daughter, Laura Virginia Douglas Temple (1914-1998).[1]
O'Hanlon died at the age of eighty-one in a nursing home in Valatie in Columbia County, New York. She is interred at Chatham Center Rural Cemetery in North Chatham in Columbia County. The famous letter remains in the possession of O'Hanlon's heirs.[1]
References
- â 1.0 1.1 1.2 Virginia OI'Hanlon. Findagrave.com. Retrieved on May 13, 2020.
- â "Yes, Virginia, There is a Santa Clause". Newseum (September 21, 1887). Retrieved on May 13, 2020.