Many writers, including the edi
tor of the Mirror, have done stories
ton New Bern’s Ed Wallnau for var
ious newspapers. One of the better
ones appeared in the New York
Times on June 11, 1956.
Meyer Berger wrote it, and since
a feature about yourself in that
most respected of all dailies is
about as high as you can get, we
are reprinting it today to remind
fellow New Bernians of the'esteem
that outsiders feel for one 'of our
home town boys.
Here is the New York Times col
umn devoted entirely to Ed:
A curious figure at the United
States Military Academy graduat
ion at West Point the other day
was a tall, rapid-talking civilian,
an honorary member of the class
of ’31.
He virtually ran the class’ 25th
reunion. He wriggled with delight
as West Point’s high brass and
cadets hailed him at all turns and
called him by name.
He is Edward Wallnau, vice-pres
ident of the Picadilly Hotel, off
Times Square, a native of New
Bern, which was North Carolina’s
eighteenth-century capital. It was
through Col. Marcellus Duffy, an
other New Bernian, class of ’31, that
Mr. Wallnau came to adopt West
Point as his hobby a quarter of a
century ago.
The colonel invited Mr. Wallnau
to the class graduation as a family
friend and neighbor. In that same
year Mr. Wallnau, as an assistant
manager at the Astor Hotel, had
just begun to-meet a run of West
Point officers and oadets.
They stayed at the Astor fre
quently, mostly on holidays and
^ when they were down for football.
They got a special rate there, as
they do at the Picadilly now. It
was unofficially the West Pointer’s
home in the city.
Mr. Wallnau delighted in getting
railroad and theater tickets for the
visiting cadets, in lending them
small sums to sweeten their dates
when they ran short of cash.
In return he asked for their au
tographed photographs, of which
by and by, he had hundreds. His
office in the Picadilly now has no
more wall space for cadet pictures.
Ail desk and table surface ife
covered with Howitzers, the West
Point yearbooks, and with works
by former Academy-men, Generals
Omar Bradley, Mary Clark and Wil
liam Dean, among others.
Shallow wicker baskets in Mr.
Wallnau’s office hold thousands of
officers’ and cadets’ visiting cards,
some already yellowing, many left
by boys who went-to the wars and
never came back.
Framed pictures of these dead
on the office walls carry gold or
silver stars—one gold star for men
killed in action, two gold stars for
dead who had won decorations, a
silver star for men who died be
hind the lines or in peacetime Air
Force accidents. Mr. Wallnau knew
them all when they were young
sters.
His scrapbooks are heavy with
notices of weddings, births and
deaths, sent by cadets after they
got out of West Point. He has news
Clippings of their military ex
ploits, watches the journals for
them all the time.
His class books go back to 1904,
given by old grads who heard of
his hobby. He carried the whole
collection to the Picadilly when he
left the Astor in 1937. He took with
him at that time a whopping bit
of the Aster’s West Point business.
During World War II West Point
graduates on all fronts deluged Mr.
Wallnau with V-mail. He has kept
it all. One run of wartime corre
spondence brought him $115,000 in
checks. These came when the West
Point grapevine carried word that
Mr. Wallnau was thinking of start-
(Continued on Back Page)
The NEW BERN
PUBLISHED WEEKLY
IN THE HEART OF
EASTERN NORTH
CAROLINA
5 Per Copy
VOLUME 2
NEW BERN, N. C., FRIDAY, APRIL 3, 1959
NUMBER 1
A TOAST FROM OLD BERNIE—Having covered the Tryon
Palace story thoroughly in recent weeks with our series of
front page photographs, we reached out thousands of miles
to get just the right scene for today’s issue of The Mirror.
We got it too, thanks to the cooperation of the Mayor and
others in our mother city. What could be more appropriate
than the famed bear cubs of Berne, lifting their bottles
of milk in a toast to New Bern and the now restored Palace?
Burke Davis Will Be Among
Notables in City Next Week
Not the least of the noted per- past ten years, including “To Ap-
sonalities who will be here Wed
nesday for Tryon Palace doings is
that distinguished Durham biogra
pher and novelist, W. Burke Davis.
pomatox”, a Literary, Guild se.
lection now on the best-seller list,
he will be at the Southern Book
Center on Pollock street during the
Author of eight books in the 1 day for an autographing party.
Currently covering the General
Assembly for the Greensboro Dai
ly News, Burke has been a re
porter for 20 years. At present he
is living.in a log cabin with his
family in Guilford county. Built al.
most 200 years ago by a Quaker
settler, James Ross, the dwelling
has been enlarged and renovated.
A prolific producer, once he gets
started, Davis writes a book in six
or seven weeks, but to do that re
quires a full year of research and
ground-work. He has found limit
less material in the drama, bitter
ness and heartbreak of the‘Civil
War, and expects to write on this
theme indefinitely.
His “Jeb Stewart’’ received the
Fletcher Pratt Award for the best
Civil War book published in 1957,
and two of his Civil War biogra
phies have been placed in the
White House library among “the
two hundred leading titles of the
past four years.” *
From 1937 to 1947, he was a
sports writer for the Charlotte
News, and also did editorials and
features for that leading Tar Heel
daily. After four years as a re
porter on the Baltimore Evening
Sun, he headed back to North Car
olina and sunk his roots near
Greensboro.
Although Burke will be much too
busy while in New Bern to do re
search, there is an abundance of
Civil War lystory in the first State
Capital. An authority on that tragic
conflict, he is already familiar with
some of our lore, and no doubt will
pursue the matter further in due
time.
The Durham native has proven
once again the adage that a writer
can do his best work if he concen
trates on the section where he
first saw the light of day. Burke
wasn’t around when Robert E. Lee
and Stonewall Jackson were lead
ing the boys in gray, but he is
more than casually acquainted with
hallowed Confederate ground.
'in fact, 50 soldiers of the 71st
Highland Regiment are buried on
the spot where his log cabin stands.
He disclaims any “professional
Confederate” label, but those who
read his books are convinced that
the Lost Cause is embedded deep
in his heart.
Because he is an accurate report
er, Davis writes as factually as pos-
sible. As a result, his biographies
don’t always strike the fancy of
some readers. The ones who'don’t
see eye to eye with him, often
bombard him with scathing letters,
but he tries to answer these let
ters, good or bad.
You might think, offhand, that
his greatest following is below the
Mason-Dixon linf. To the contrary,
interest in Civil War books ex
tends the length and breadth of
America, and is remarkably high in
Northern states.
Burke didn’t enjoy real success
in the realm of books until he
turned to the Civil War for in
spiration. His initial book was a
contemporary novel, “Whisper My
Name”, and it was a rather feeble
seller. So was his second novel,
“The Ragged Ones”, with a Revolu
tionary setting.
Things started looking up but
definitely when he set his gights on
(Continued on back page)