The “Old Courthouse Players” will honor Veterans’ Day by presenting a radio-style play reading of My Dear Julia, the romance of Ulysses S. Grant and his beloved wife Julia, on Sunday, November 11, at 1:00 p.m. and again at 3:00 p.m. at the Old Courthouse in Downtown St. Louis.
Playwright and local historian NiNi Harris used memoirs and first hand accounts of the meeting, courtship and family life of Lieutenant General Ulysses S. and Julia Grant to tell the story of this famous romance. Ulysses and Julia met in St. Louis, were married in Downtown St. Louis, and returned to St. Louis throughout their lives. After Ulysses died of cancer, General William Tecumseh Sherman said to his widow Julia, “You were as true as the needle to the thread, in poverty as in wealth, in adversity as well as exaltation.”
The Players are a group of friends interested in local history and the preservation of local historic sites. They have presented play readings on the history of Prohibition in St. Louis, the Civil War in St. Louis, and the story of the St. Louis riverfront.
The play reading is approximately 40 minutes in length.
The plays are fashioned in the style of plays about events in St. Louis history that were presented on local stations during the early days of radio.
The play reading is free and open to the public.