Reeve Lindbergh, Charles Lindbergh’s youngest daughter, author of Under a Wing, a memoir

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Reeve Lindbergh, the youngest daughter of pioneering aviator Charles and Anne Morrow Lindbergh, grew up in a family that carried the burden of American myth, both because of Lindbergh’s landmark 1927 transatlantic flight that catapulted him to the status of All-American Hero, and, tragically, because of the kidnapping and killing of the couple’s first child, their baby boy. Last week, Reeve Lindbergh told a rapt audience what it was like for her growing up in that family. Lindbergh is author of Under A Wing, a memoir of her family and her part in it. She spoke as kick-off speaker in the Edith Wharton Women of Achievement series July 2 at Seven Hills Resort in Lenox. “In a sense, the Lindbergh family, for many people, marked their lives in a special way,” she said. “Their triumphs, tragedies and controversies were recorded by one or another family member,” she said. “For my mother, an experience wasn’t real until it was written down,” she said. “Even now [her mother died earlier this year], I see or feel something and hear my mother’s voice saying ‘Write it down.’ ” A 1968 graduate of Radcliffe College, Lindbergh is completing a book about her mother’s final years titled No More Words. She is the author of 15 children’s books. Her mother suffered a stroke, and spent the last 18 months of her life in a house near her daughter’s. But at times, she could summon speech. One of those times was on a drive together when her mother said, “I’m afraid of dying.” Reeve Lindbergh, assuming the discussion was on a cosmic level, started suggesting possible concerns. Her mother responded, “It’s your driving.” “She kind of set me straight,” said Reeve Lindbergh. “I read Gift From the Sea [her mother’s classic book] to her the last month of her life. And when I would stop, she would say, ‘More.’ ” “I found there was a language without language. There is connection, love, humor, affection. She continued to bear witness to what life was,” she said. Their most devastating connection was the loss of baby sons, at the same age. Reeve Lindbergh lost her son Jonathan from illness. Her mother, in Hour of Gold, Hour of Lead, recorded the anguish of walking into her dead baby son’s room, looking at his toys — the Swedish horse, the music box, spools and crayons — and opening the bureau drawers and putting her face in his little blue knitted jacket. Reeve Lindbergh said she learned from her mother that, faced with one of the most scarifying ordeals imaginable, “you can write and record your feelings, you can tell the truth.” It was devastating for Reeve Lindbergh when her mother suffered a stroke and stopped talking, although, she would, occasionally, speak. Poignantly, when she was near the end of her life, one of Anne Morrow Lindbergh’s caregivers suggested, “Mrs. Lindbergh, don’t you want to go to sleep?” She replied, “I don’t want to miss the dancing.” Her mother, daughter of the U.S. ambassador to Mexico, met her father, then a dashing, and astonishingly famous, young aviator flying his famous Spirit of St. Louis, in Mexico City. Growing up the youngest of the five children born after the firstborn’s death, and the press frenzy that accompanied the kidnapping, Reeve Lindbergh felt secluded and protected. Her father safeguarded his family’s privacy. “We never had any sense of danger,” she said. “We were safe because we were with them. “When we traveled, if he was recognized, we would pack up and leave,” she said. Being one of his children was not easy, she acknowledged. He could be demanding, domineering and stern, according to incidents she relates in her book. But he could also be approachable, supportive and encouraging. She maintained that he was not always demanding, but, in response to a question, she acknowledged that, for her mother, “I don’t think it was easy ... in the early years.” “He was very uncomfortable with expressions of emotion. But in his later years he became more open, more human, and very interested in conservation.” Asked if she and the other children felt pressure to achieve, she responded, “There is a reverberation to the name Lindbergh. I think it was easier for the girls. Our mother was a mother, daughter, wife, writer, and that was achievable. It was harder for the boys. To be the first to fly the Atlantic, that’s a lot harder.” In her book she recounted her realization of her father’s competence and control when, on one of her frequent flights with him as a child, the plane’s single engine stalled and her made an emergency landing in a pasture. “I don’t think there was any drop in altitude, not at first,” she wrote. “What I noticed was my father’s sudden alertness, as if he had opened a million eyes and ears in every direction.” Another question focused on her father’s isolationism, and his opposition to the United States’ entrance into World War II, a stance that drew strong criticism. “My mother was agonized over that,” said Reeve Lindbergh, “that my father didn’t have the understanding not to tone down his Des Moines speech, and that it would haunt him for the rest of his life.” “He didn’t even see it,” she said. In that controversial speech, her father charged that the Roosevelt administration, the British and the Jews were pressing for war. But Reeve Lindbergh said as she was growing up the children heard no anti-Semitism from him, and, she maintained that everyone sees events in the context of his own time. Her parents, she said, “helped each other” with their writing. “His style was much more oratorical, my mother’s was poetic.” “Theirs was very much a writing partnership,” she said. “He made her brave. She didn’t write anything new after he died.” Upcoming talks in the Edith Wharton Lecture Series are as follows: • July 16: Augusta Rohrback, “Lights, Camera, The House of Mirth! The Film World Takes on Edith Wharton.” • July 23: Frances Kiernan, “Mary McCarthy: The Legend Versus The Woman.” • July 30: Allan Keiler, “The Many Voices of Marian Anderson: Legendary Singer and National Symbol.” • Aug. 6: Russell Freedman, “Martha Graham: Against All Odds.” Aug. 13: Roxana Robinson, “Georgia O’Keeffe: Reading the Work as the Life.” • Aug. 20: Maureen Howard, “Edith Wharton’s Short Stories: Sex and the Supernatural.” • Aug. 27: Carol Easton, “Jacqueline du Pré: As I Knew Her.” • Sept. 3: Mary Ann Caws, “Dora Maar: Not Just Picasso’s Weeping Woman.” Admission is $16 in advance, $18 at the door. Reservations are requested and may be made by calling 637-1899.
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McCann Recognizes Superintendent Award Recipient

By Tammy DanielsiBerkshires Staff

Landon LeClair and Superintendent James Brosnan with Landon's parents Eric and Susan LeClair, who is a teacher at McCann. 
NORTH ADAMS, Mass. — The Superintendent's Award has been presented to Landon LeClair, a senior in McCann Technical School's advanced manufacturing course. 
 
The presentation was made last Thursday by Superintendent Jame Brosnan after Principal Justin Kratz read from teachers' letters extolling LeClair's school work, leadership and dedication. 
 
"He's become somewhat legendary at the Fall State Leadership Conference for trying to be a leader at his dinner table, getting an entire plate of cookies for him and all his friends," read Kratz to chuckles from the School Committee. "Landon was always a dedicated student and a quiet leader who cared about mastering the content."
 
LeClair was also recognized for his participation on the school's golf team and for mentoring younger teammates. 
 
"Landon jumped in tutoring the student so thoroughly that the freshman was able to demonstrate proficiency on an assessment despite the missed class time for golf matches," read Kratz.
 
The principal noted that the school also received feedback from LeClair's co-op employer, who rated him with all fours.
 
"This week, we sent Landon to our other machine shop to help load and run parts in the CNC mill," his employer wrote to the school. LeClair was so competent the supervisor advised the central shop might not get him back. 
 
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