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John B. OakesJohn B. Oakes
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Part:         Session:         Page of 512

Q:

Well, let me ask you just a quick follow up question. It would need to be part of the deal then, that he married Iphigene in order to take over after Adolph died. Was that it?

Oakes:

Oh, no. I don't think it was that way at all. I don't think so. In fact, I think, quite the contrary. I'm sure that there was no deal of that sort.

Q:

No, I don't mean a literal deal.

Oakes:

Well, but I'm sure that was not at all a foregone conclusion, at all. No. That I'm certain of. I was about four years old at the time they were married. I was a page at their wedding, by the way. It was 1917 that they were married. Had a very fancy wedding at A.S.O. [Adolph Simon Ochs]'s house on 75th Street. And I remember going down the aisle. I was a train bearer or something like that. I'd finished my duties as that, and I climbed on my father's knee who was somewhere down in the front row, and burst into tears. That was my total memory of the thing.

Q:

It was too much for you, huh?

Oakes:

Iphigene's wedding. But anyway, it was only later when Julius went off to war and became a big war hero, coming out with a Distinguished Service Cross, which is the highest American medal for valor next to the Congressional Medal of Honor. Arthur, who was also in the army, didn't get overseas. By the time Julius got back from overseas, during which period Adolph Ochs, his uncle, was having a nervous breakdown --





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