Philip St George

Smithsonian CORRESPONDENCE AND ENVELOPES OF PHILIP ST. GEORGE

Philip St. George (also known as Philip Roxbury) seems to have identified as being a gay man. While closeted, he apparently had a rich correspondence with numerous friends who may have also identified as being gay or bisexual. What is known about St. George is very little. He lived in New York after WWII. Philip St. George?s birth name was reported as Earl Drew and possibly was of mixed race. Philip reportedly worked as a Wall Street clerk and lived alone on Manhattan dying at the age of 68 in April 1997. He had no known survivors and was buried as an indigent on Hart Island, New York.

I never met Philip St George personally. I found him in the Archives Center of the Smithsonian National Museum of American History, when one of the archivists directed me to some correspondence addressed to him that had been saved in one of their collections. It was only a handful of letters, all written in the 1940s and 50s. I think one was a love letter from a paratrooper, although I can't say for sure. They were all great letters, full of love and drama and gossip. I wish we could have had just one letter written from Philip so we could add his voice to the collection.

The archivist also directed me to this article written a few months after Philip died, which is more or less a New York Times obituary. Memorialized by the Smithsonian and the New York Times - not bad for someone who's been in anonymity for just shy of twenty years.

I'll pour a shot of Smirnoff and say a prayer in his memory.