North Yemen’s Rassids Royal House was forced out in 1962 and the Mutawakalite Kingdom abolished. On the other side of the world in 1963, American President John F Kennedy was assassinated. It is kind of strange then that a Mutawakalite postal authority would issue a stamp on JFK’s memorial opening in Virginia in 1967. So slip on your smoking jacket, fill your pipe, take your first sip of your adult beverage, and sit back in your most comfortable chair. Welcome to todays offering from The Philatelist.
The story of how this stamp came to be begins with an American child stamp collector named Bruce Conde. He wrote a letter to then North Yemeni King Ahmad hoping to be sent real Yemeni stamps. He got a letter back from then young Prince Badr who was also a stamp collector. The two became pen pals and eventually Conde was invited to North Yemen. He converted to Shia Islam and was decreed a Yemeni citizen. In 1962, King Ahmad died of natural causes and Badr became King. Before the stamps of North Yemen could reflect having a philatelist King, Nasser’s Egypt funded a coup by the Royal guard that forced King Badr and Bruce Conde out of the capital Sana. From mountainous areas of the country, King Badr, with the support of Saudi Arabia was able to maintain an insurgency. Bruce Conde was authorized to issue stamps to raise funds for the insurgency. Eventually the Saudis tired of the lack of success and made peace with the recognized Egyptian backed government. King Badr went into exile in London where he died in 1996. Bruce Conde was left without a country as he renounced USA citizenship and North Yemen renounced him and his stamps. He moved to Morocco.
Since this stamp is fake, there is no catalog value.
What to do about a grave memorial for President Kennedy was an area of discussion after his death. The family initially intended to have him interred in the family cemetery in Brookline, Massachusetts. His died soon after childbirth child Patrick had been buried there a few months before. The widow Jaqueline Kennedy however had other ideas. She wanted him buried in a valley at Arlington National Cemetary that Kennedy had found peaceful during visits there. She also insisted on an eternal flame. This was inspired by two things. An eternal flame for France’s fallen soldiers at the Arc de Triumph she had seen on her Paris trip. Also the T. H. White book Candle in the Wind that was the basis for the play Camelot, a family favorite. Many thought the eternal flame tacky, but thought it would be wrong to go against the widow’s wishes.
Jacqueline Kennedy contracted family friend and landscape architect John Warneche. There was a simple New England style black granite headstone flat to the ground of grass with the body facing the Washington monument and in the shadow of Arlington House, the former home of General Robert E Lee. When the three acre site was ready in early 1967, John F Kennedy and two children died in infancy were interred. Later they were joined by Senator Robert Kennedy after his own assassination and later by the widow Jacqueline upon her natural death in 1996 and Senator Edward Kennedy in 2009.
The Eternal Flame went out briefly twice. Once when a group of Catholic schoolchildren sprinkled holy water on it. Later during an exeptionally heavy rain the electric gas igniter was flooded and shorted out. In 2012, the igniter system of unique design started clicking loudly and was replaced while keeping the flame going.
Well my drink is empty. I think I will have another since a nice story was found from even a fake stamp. Come again next Monday for another story that can be learned from stamp collecting. Next week’s won’t be fake, I promise.