ALBRIGHT: A touch of Churchill

Perhaps historian Syd Albright would do a column highlighting Winston Churchill’s link to Idaho, however tenuous? Or perhaps he already has and I missed it.

Books have been written about the causes of the financial decline of the “landed gentry” in England. To keep from losing everything, many English families hoped to marry off a son to a wealthy, social climbing, American woman.

So, Randolph Churchill married Jennie Jerome, American mining heiress, which union produced their son, Winston. Jennie’s father was a mining magnate for whom the now historic town of Jerome, Ariz., was named. There is only one other town in America that is named Jerome, and it is in southern Idaho. Is there a connection or is this just a coincidence? Perhaps Syd could enlighten us.

BOB RIDOUT

Hayden

P.S. I know that it sounds corny, but if we don’t know where we have been, we don’t know where we are going.

Editor’s note: There is also a Jerome, Pa., Jerome, Mich., Jerome, Ill., and Jerome, Mo.