Fitz Neal's (left) and Claiborne Kinnard's (right) Peal & Co. boots (photo provided by Jon and Laura Kinnard).
Fitz “Jeeter” Neal is at left (photo from the private collection of Henry C. Hurt). Claiborne “Zoot” Kinnard is at right (photo from the American Air Museum in Britain, contributed by Paul Heys).
Ron Francis, Branch Manager of the Pittsylvania County History Research Center and Library, announces that the late Capt. Fitz Neal, Jr.'s boots have just been received by the Center. “Capt. Neal's boots will likely have a table-top display for the quarterly meeting of the Pittsylvania Historical Society here on April 15,” advises Francis. “Then we will move them to a Memorial Day-themed display to be featured in late May. After that, the boots will become a permanent part of the Veteran's History Collection here at the Center.”
The Pittsylvania Historical Society's quarterly meeting at the Center will occur at 7 p.m. on April 15, 2019. The public is welcome to the event. The occasion of the boots display is a 75th anniversary commemoration of Capt. Neal's death in battle on April 29, 1944.
The Pittsylvania County History Research Center and Library is a branch of the Pittsylvania County Public Library. The Center is located in the former Chatham railway station at 340 Whitehead Street, just off Depot Street, and is open to the public Tuesdays through Saturdays, 10 a.m. to 2 p.m., and closed Sundays and Mondays. For further information about the Center, telephone (434) 432-8931.
While assigned to the 354th Fighter Squadron of the 355th Fighter Group at RAF Steeple Morden in England during World War II, Spring Garden native Fitz “Jeeter” Neal and his friend, squadron commander Claiborne “Zoot” Kinnard, both purchased custom-made boots from the famed bootmakers Peal & Co. (see below).
Kinnard's son Jon reports that Zoot and Jeeter “made a pact that if one of them was shot down, the other could keep his boots and return them to his family. My father made it home, but Capt. Neal did not.”
Claiborne Kinnard was not successful in finding the Neal family during his lifetime. He died in 1966. The boots and the mission of finding the Neals were inherited by Jon and his wife Laura, of Franklin, Tennessee. They, too, were unsuccessful until Laura found an article about Capt. Neal on ChathamGuide.com, a website hosted by the local Mitchell family.
Laura exchanged emails with writer/researcher Sarah Mitchell, who in turn alerted her parents Henry and Patricia. Henry had grown up at Spring Garden as a close neighbor to the Neal family, and Capt. Neal's mother Helen Conway Neal was Henry's fifth grade teacher. Capt. Neal's second cousin Betty Neal (Mrs. Ben) Davenport was one of Patricia's high school English teachers.
After further correspondence, the Kinnards sent Capt. Neal's boots to Betty Davenport, with the mutual understanding that the Pittsylvania County History Research Center and Library would be the ideal eventual repository for them in honor of Capt. Neal. After receiving the boots, Betty Davenport gifted them to the Center.
The famed Peal and Company made custom footwear from 1791 to 1965, providing royalty, captains of industry and commerce, and celebrities worldwide with their comfortable and durable footwear.
A quick glance down an abbreviated list of their customers reveals Fred Astaire, Humphrey Bogart, Mrs. Neville Chamberlain, Charlie Chaplin, Lady Rosemary Churchill, Gary Cooper, Mrs. Walt Disney, Sir Anthony Eden, Douglas Fairbanks, Eddie Fisher, Henry Fonda, Mr. and Mrs. Henry Ford II, James Garner, Barry Goldwater, Benny Goodman, Cary Grant, Boris Karloff, Ted Kennedy, Dean Martin, Steve McQueen, Lord Louis Mountbatten, Sir Laurence Olivier, Jane Wyman, and a great number of royals.
Young Army Air Corps officers Neal and Kinnard's feet were in good company!
This website is sponsored by Mitchells Publications, Chatham, Virginia.
