The Blaine County Journal News-Opinion - We've Got The County Covered

Twenty-plus locals gathered last week at the Blaine County Library to hear native Vic Palm talk about "Aunt Eleanor's Men," a book he wrote and published in 2017. Palm, who grew up in Chinook and graduated from CHS in 1959, was greeted by a number of former classmates, friends and family members who came to hear about the escapades of the half-sister of his maternal grandfather Gilman McKinnie. Gilman's daughter, Laura Palm, is the mother of Vic and Chuck Palm and Ardis (Palm) Conrad. Ardis remained in Chinook, married and raised a family here. Chuck and Vic both left the area soon after finishing school.

Vic gave a bit of his own history after graduating high school in Chinook. He completed a teacher certification program at Northern (MSU-Northern) and taught one year at Turner. He joined the army and was deployed to San Juan, Puerto Rico to teach English to troops there. While sharing a cab ride to the beach in the Caribbean he met Joyce, who was part of a traveling USO troupe that performed at the local military base. Eight months later Vic and Joyce were married. Vic spent most of his career as a teacher in the public schools of New Jersey. Upon retiring he and Joyce moved to Easton, Pennsylvania to be nearer an adult child. They still live in the Lehigh Valley, just north of Philadelphia and west of New York City.

Pursuing the story

of Aunt Eleanor

Vic said, "At some point I asked my mom, "What about that great aunt that Grandma McKinnie would never talk about?" My mom responded there was a manila folder in the bottom drawer of the bureau with information about Aunt Eleanor and I could have it." He found the folder. It had the name of 'John Forsythe' (most recently known for his role in the 1980's TV series "Dynasty") written on it. Vic took the folder with him when he retired and moved to Pennsylvania.

Vic learned later that a distant cousin in California who was connected with John Forsythe and other movie industry executives had once shopped the folder to see if someone would make a movie about Aunt Eleanor. Vic said, "I think even in that era there wasn't enough sex and violence in the story to make a movie." That observation brought a laugh from the folks listening to the story of Vic's illustrious relative.

Vic and Joyce began traveling to find information about his great aunt, born Eleanor McKinney in 1874 in Ohio. Without spoiling the story for future readers of Vic's book, the chase to find information about Eleanor proved nearly as interesting as what they learned. They found little information in Ohio, Eleanor's birthplace. Her first husband was an official for the Great Northern Railroad and that connection took them to the J.J. Hill (founder of the Great Northern) Center in Saint Paul, Minnesota.

Eleanor's career in show business, both as a show girl and later as the wife of a stage manager, took the Palm's to the Billy Rose Theatre Division of the New York City Public Library. The Theatre Division has one of the most extensive archives of the theatre arts in the world. Vic said security was extremely strict. He showed up without an appointment but was able to look at some documents relative to Eleanor, stage name Margaret Busby, and her husband Ben Teal.

It was about that time Eleanor was arrested and sent to jail for a year. That launched her in to a career of cons, false identities and devious schemes that took her across North America and Europe, having regular run-ins with the law.

Along the way Eleanor had six marriages and two children. One of the children, a daughter named Cynthia, was adopted while Eleanor was married to Ben Teal. That daughter is credited with the stories about Eleanor in the second half of Vic Palm's book. Cynthia traveled twice across Europe with Eleanor, once as a child and once as an adult participant in some of Eleanor's schemes.

This photo from the cover of Vic Palm's recent book, "Aunt Eleanor's Men," shows Genevieve Paddleford (Aunt Eleanor) in 1927. It was during this period she was arrested posing as Grace Potter and was sentenced to serve one to fourteen years in San Quentin prison for defrauding a shopkeeper in California. She was paroled after serving eighteen months and married John Chauncey Fawcett of Brooklyn, New York. They soon separated and she headed for Austria where she was arrested for attempted fraud.

In 1922 Cynthia wrote a series of stories about the exploits in Europe she experienced with her mother. Vic Palm found the 14-week series published in the "Indianapolis Star" and other large newspapers. The series ran under the title "The Amazing Confessions of a Trained Swindler." At the time the syndicated stories were running in American newspapers, Eleanor was in jail in Europe on charges of swindling. She later was acquitted of those charges but other allegations caught up with her. She died in prison in 1941 and is buried at the Washington State Prison in an unmarked grave.

"You should publish a book"

Vic Palm never set out to publish a book, he only wanted to tell Aunt Eleanor's story for his family. Joyce, Vic's wife, suggested he take what he had written and publish a book. The shortened version of his adventure in publishing was that an associate of a publishing house that only takes women authors helped him get his book in shape to publish. The finished version was published in 2107.

Vic says his biggest fan is one of his adult daughters. He explained, "She organized an event to let me share about the book." He said he's spoken to a few other groups and will likely do more events to promote the book. "Aunt Elanor's Men" is available on Amazon. Vic's sister Ardis Conrad said Vic left a few copies of the book with her to sell. She can be reached at home.

The final question Vic took at the library was about his future writing plans. He smiled and said, "Well, I've been reading a lot about Chief Joseph. I'm not sure where that research might take me." Readers, don't be surprised to see more writing from native son and now author, Vic Palm. The "Journal" congratulates Vic on his new book.