Lee Harvey Oswald's School Certificates

Lee Harvey Oswald's Elementary and Junior High School Promotion Certificates, Inscribed and Signed by his Mother, Marguerite Oswald. Lee's early home life was anything but stable; by the time he was 18, he'd lived in 22 different homes and attended 12 different schools in three states. At the age of 12, he graduated from Ridglea West Elementary School in Fort Worth, a school he had attended for three years - longer than any other school in his life. This two-item lot consists of:
1. Lee Harvey Oswald's "Certificate of Promotion ... to Junior High School." One page, 10" x 8", [Fort Worth] Texas, May 30, 1952. This partly printed document with decorative border reads in full: "This is to Certify That Lee Oswald having satisfactorily performed the work prescribed for Elementary School is Promoted to Junior High School. Given at Ridglea West School, May 30, 1952." The document bears the printed signatures of school district officials, as well as the ink signatures of Lee's teacher and the school principal. Inscribed and signed on verso by Lee's mother, Marguerite Oswald, in ink: "This is Lee's original certificate of promotion. Ridglea West School in Ft. Worth, Tex. Marguerite C. Oswald, mother of Lee Harvey Oswald." Document shows faint wear at fold, but is generally very fine.
2. Lee Harvey Oswald's "New Orleans Public Schools Certificate of Promotion to High School," also inscribed and signed by Marguerite Oswald. One page, 8.25" x 7", New Orleans, June 10, 1955. Following his graduation from elementary school in Texas, Marguerite relocated her family to New York. During this time, Lee's personality and demeanor changed dramatically. Where he had previously been quiet and reserved, in New York Lee grew angry and anti-social, chronically truant and failing most of his classes. He grew increasingly interested in Marxism, and was professionally "diagnosed as personality pattern disturbance with schizoid features and passive-aggressive tendencies." Rather than getting him the help he desperately needed, Marguerite took her son and left New York for New Orleans. There, Oswald attended junior high school - his tenth school - at Beauregard School, from which he received this decoratively edged partly printed document "For having satisfactorily completed the 9th Grade... this 10 day of June 1955." It bears the red ink signature of the school principal at lower left; teacher's signature is not extant. On the verso, Lee's mother Marguerite has penned: "After leaving New York, Lee and I returned to N.O. La. This is his certificate of promotion. Marguerite C. Oswald, mother of Lee Harvey Oswald." Document bears a faint stain at upper printed border and two pinholes, else fine.

An extraordinary pair of documents bracketing the first major turning point in Oswald's complicated and troubled life. Highly desirable and collectible. From the John K. Lattimer Collection.


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