Postcard arrives 53 years late

Postcard arrives 53 years late
Deceased addressee 'would get a kick out of it'
Thursday, January 30, 2003 Posted: 10:04 AM EST (1504 GMT)

MOBERLY, Missouri (AP) -- "He's gone. He's dead," was the first thought church secretary Marie Taylor had as she held the postcard addressed to the late Rev. Jack Stanton.

Then she took a closer look and read the postmark -- 9:30 p.m., October 20, 1949.

The card, relayed by the Postal Service, finally reached its destination last week at the Carpenter Street Baptist Church, where Stanton was pastor from 1947 to 1951. He died last year.

The card, with a correct one-cent stamp, featured a picture of a St. Louis evangelist, Del Fehsenfeld, who was planning a revival in Burbank, California, in 1949.

Promised topics included "Are you ready to meet God?" and "Will the atomic-bomb end all?"

Taylor used the Internet to track down the 90-year-old Fehsenfeld in Greenville, South Carolina. He recalled passing through Missouri many times and said he'd like to visit again, Taylor said.

Postal officials had their theories about how the card went missing for more than half a century.

It could have been stuck in a machine or a piece of furniture in a Burbank post office and didn't get found until a recent renovation, said Rich Skaggs, the Moberly postmaster.

But Terri Bouffiou, spokeswoman for the U.S. Postal Service in Southern California, said there wasn't any renovation or move lately at any Burbank post office.

What would the late pastor think about his never-received mail?

"He would get a kick out of it," said current pastor Brian Wilson.