ROANOKE TIMES
Copyright (c) 1996, Roanoke Times
DATE: Tuesday, April 2, 1996 TAG: 9604020072
SECTION: VIRGINIA PAGE: C1 EDITION: METRO
DATELINE: BEDFORD
SOURCE: RICHARD FOSTER STAFF WRITER
AMATEUR HISTORIAN KENNETH CROUCH of Bedford County spent almost everything he had on postage, writing to the most famous and influential people of the 20th century and soliciting their autographs and opinions. Occasionally, he'd even make lifelong pen pals.
When Kenneth Crouch's mother died, family members had to move 225 books off his sofa so people would have a place to sit at the wake.
But that was nothing compared to last year, when Crouch himself died at age 70 of liver cancer.
The former newspaperman and amateur historian's friends and family cleared out 66 boxes of his books and personal papers, and found truckloads of large kitchen garbage bags full of 53 years of his correspondence with everyone from astronauts and athletes to movie stars and heads of state.
"Everything you touch is a wonder," said a cousin who is handling Crouch's estate.
This month, the Bedford City/County Museum is putting together an exhibit that highlights Crouch's life and his gargantuan collection of letters and autographed books and photos.
Crouch - a one-time candidate for sheriff and longtime reporter for the now-defunct weekly, The Bedford Democrat - spent nearly every penny he had on postage and books. Every Sunday, he would stuff his tiny mailbox in hopes of adding to his legendary collection of autographs and letters from the 20th century's most influential people.
Sometimes, as with deposed King Simeon II of Bulgaria, Crouch's missives made lifetime pen pals out of people he had never met in faraway lands where he never traveled. The king, who was overthrown by communists in 1946 when he was 10 years old, sent Crouch Christmas cards, letters, and New Year's photos every year from the 1960s until Crouch's death.
"It's such a varied collection," said museum director Ellen Wandrei. "Everything from Minnie Pearl to presidents."
The centerpiece of the museum exhibit is the item Crouch probably valued most: a 1946 edition of the book "Gone With The Wind" signed by all the leading actors in the film.
The book includes signatures, photos and notes from Clark Gable, Vivien Leigh, Olivia de Havilland, Butterfly McQueen, Hattie McDaniel and producer David O. Selznick.
In 1988, actor Rand Brooks, who played Charles Hamilton in the film, replied to Crouch's request to sign the book: "Dear Kenneth: I will sign it, but I do not like the responsibility for such a valuable book. Send good packaging for return to you. R. Brooks."
Seeking autographs, Crouch would send books on just about every topic to just about anyone remotely involved with them. Most of the time, people gladly complied, and the results are entertaining.
For example, in January 1949, Russian composer Igor Stravinsky signed a biography of himself, adding, "This is in no case the best book written about me." A month later, the author of the book added his signature below Stravinsky's - with a footnote: "Mr. Crouch: The important thing is not whether this is the best book written on Stravinsky, but whether it has helped readers to understand or enjoy his music. If it has, then I consider it is justified."
Also on display at the museum are Crouch's political autographs and a formidable collection of Watergate memorabilia. A voracious devourer of all things political, Crouch had the autographs of every president from Hoover to Bush and collected Congressional Records the way some people collect baseball cards, comic books or compact discs.
Crouch had a piece of carpet from the Democratic Headquarters at the Watergate office building and books autographed by President Nixon and all of his men, including Chuck Colson, John Dean, G. Gordon Liddy, Henry Kissinger, and John Ehrlichman.
His copy of the record of Nixon's impeachment hearing was signed by almost everyone who was present. Some of the autographs include then-Vice President Gerald Ford, Democratic Rep. Barbara Jordan, and Hillary Rodham Clinton, who at that time was a staff member for the House Judiciary Committee's Watergate impeachment inquiry.
In a display case devoted to sports, the museum exhibits some of Crouch's prizes: a baseball signed by Jackie Robinson and a biography signed twice by Babe Ruth himself: "To my good friend Ken Crouch."
Elsewhere, there's an anti-Nazi propaganda poster signed by the artist, an autograph of King Edward, the Duke of Windsor, and Tammy Wynette's autobiography, "Stand By Your Man," signed by Wynette and ex-husband George Jones.
A book about atomic energy bears the signatures of famed physicists Albert Einstein and Robert Oppenheimer, as well as the entire crew of the Enola Gay, the plane that dropped the bomb on Hiroshima. And speaking of Hiroshima, one of Crouch's correspondents sent him a piece of masonry and a wooden cross from a church that was bombed there. ("They had to use Geiger counters on everything before they let Kenneth have it," Wandrei said.)
"He never traveled any farther away from home than Washington, D.C., and each neighboring state," said his cousin, who asked not to be identified. "He did all of this by correspondence. He traveled by way of the mail."
Almost unbelievably, the pieces on display at the museum probably make up only about a fifth of Crouch's collection, and that's a generous estimate.
In storage are thousands more books, photos, and letters, which his estate is feverishly trying to catalogue for sale. In his will, Crouch asked that his autographs and collectibles be sold and the proceeds split between the museum, where he was a longtime volunteer, and Quaker Baptist Church, which he served as church clerk for 36 years.
"The family always said he'd be a millionaire if he sold what he had," said the cousin. Crouch led a modest life, however. He was a bachelor who lived with his mother in a log house that his grandparents had lived in before them.
Crouch's collection holds a few clues about the silver-haired historian himself, too. Listed in several old volumes of "Who's Who in America" and "Who's Who in the South and Southwest," Crouch is credited as the founder of an open-air cathedral in New Hampshire (though family members say he never visited it) and the author of two books: "Our Singing Land: The State Songs of the United States" and a Crouch family history titled "Saints and Black Sheep."
There's also a certificate naming him an honorary member of Tennessee's state Senate, and references to songs he composed. And then there's his autographs, probably the best measure of his interests.
Family members found 80 scrapbooks stacked up inside his house, each stuffed full of neatly labeled autographed photos and magazine covers. There's Elvis Presley, the Three Stooges, and all the cast members of TV's "Bonanza."
The scrapbooks and the people inside them cover every subject imaginable. "He has ballerinas, he has horse racing. He even has the pawprint of Rin Tin Tin!'' his cousin said.
There's a wallet-size black and white photo of assassinated Israeli Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin signed in the days when Rabin was still a commanding general of the Israeli army. Next to a certain folk singer's picture, Crouch wrote in his neat, scholarly cursive: "Miss Joan Baez."
In another scrapbook, there's a Sports Illustrated cover with a rising young college athlete from the University of Southern California who signed his name "O Jay Simpson."
"Dick Tracy" creator Chester Gould sent Crouch a personalized color pen-and-ink drawing of his private eye with the famous watch radio. And there's correspondence from Lech Walesa, the former president of Poland, dating back to when Walesa was a labor leader working the docks.
A book about the Kennedy assassination gathered the signatures of Robert Kennedy, Texas Gov. John Connelly, the mayor of Dallas, and the cardinal who officiated at Kennedy's funeral Mass. Inside the book is a handwritten letter from the police officer who arrested Lee Harvey Oswald, accompanied by the officer's autograph on copies of Oswald's arrest records.
And one book, his family says, a biography of Desert Storm commander Gen. Norman Schwarzkopf, is still gathering autographs somewhere. Crouch sent it out shortly before he died, and the estate doesn't know where it is.
"I doubt if there is any town in the universe where a Bedford postmark hasn't been," Crouch said in a 1979 interview. "I've written to every nation that exists. I've sent mail to Outer Mongolia and every little island known."
Even though the displays are not completely finished, items from Kenneth Crouch's collection can be seen at the Bedford City/County Museum Mondays through Saturdays from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. The exhibit will open officially May 5 with a public reception at the museum from 2 to 5 p.m. For more information, call 586-4520.
LENGTH: Long : 159 lines ILLUSTRATION: PHOTO: 1. CINDY PINKSTON/Staff Museum director Ellen Wandreiby CNBdisplays some of Kenneth Crouch's collection of autographed books,
stamps, and other items in his collection on exhibit at the Bedford
Museum. color
2. The centerpiece of the museum exhibit is the item Kenneth Crouch
probably valued most: a 1946 edition of the book "Gone With The
Wind" signed by all the leading actors in the film. color
3. CINDY PINKSTON/Staff Famous sports figures and politicians are
included in Kenneth Crouch's collection on display at the Bedford
Museum.
4. headshot of Crouch