January 6, 2012
LBJ Museum of San Marcos
Edwin “Jiggs” Fauver began his White House career in 1942 as a telegraph operator during the Franklin Roosevelt presidency. He retired in 1972 while Richard Nixon was president. In between, he served as White House Transportation Officer to six U.S. Presidents and their staff. Mr. Fauver’s White House Memorabilia was purchased from his estate by an anonymous donor and donated to the LBJ Museum of San Marcos.
Some of the items donated to the Museum were personally autographed photos of John F. Kennedy, Dwight D. Eisenhower and Mamie Eisenhower, Harry Truman, Lyndon Johnson and Ladybird Johnson, James Rowley, George Christian, Bill Moyers, Tom Johnson, Lloyd Hackler, Joseph Califano, George Reedy, and Ron Ziegler. Also included were scrapbooks, photo albums, travel logs, post card and matchbook, collections, President Pens, press passes, invitations, White House phone books, special edition newspapers and magazines, jewelry, souvenir ash trays, Christmas cards, certificates and much more.
One rather significant item was an “All the Way” photo album of President Johnson’s around the world trip between December 19th and December 24th of 1967. The trip started in Washington, D.C. and continued with stops at Travis AFB, Honolulu, Pago Pago, Camberra, Melbourne, Darwin, US Air Base Korat Thailand, Cam Ranh Bay South Vietnam, Karachi Pakistan, Rome, Vatican City, and the Azores. The trip was memorialized with forty-four 11 x 14 photographs including photos of Pakistan President Ayub Khan, Italian President Giuseppe, Prime Minister Harold Holt, General William Westmoreland and other important dignitaries. This trip was critical as President Johnson sought the support of Pope Paul VI regarding the treatment of U.S. prisoners-of-war held in North Vietnam, and south the Pope’s influence in getting South Vietnamese Premier Nguyen Van Thieu, who was Catholic, to the peace table.
These items will be on special display at a date in the near future.
