1. The class size is approximate because Woodrow Wilson had, in effect, two classes graduating in parallel (February and June graduates); students like Warren could shift from February to the previous June by taking a few extra credits. The school described Buffett’s top 50 ranking as falling in the top “one-seventh” of his class.
2. Barbara “Bobby” Weigand, who remembers only the hearse. Doris Buffett recalled the family debate about the hearse.
3. Interviews with Bob Feitler, Ann Beck MacFarlane, Waldo Beck. David Brown became brother-in-law of Waldo Beck, Ann Beck’s brother.
4. Interviews with Bob Feitler, Warren Buffett. Note that, because he was using the car for commercial purposes, Buffett would probably have been able to get extra gas coupons at a time when gas was tightly rationed.
5. The term “policy” probably came from the Gaelic pá lae sámh (pronounced paah lay seeh), which means “easy payday,” a nineteenth-century Irish-American gambling term.
6. The bill generated fierce anti-Taft labor reprisals in the Midwest.
7. Interview with Doris Buffett.
8. Estimate based on data supplied by Nancy R. Miller, Public Services Archivist, The University Archives and Record Center, University of Pennsylvania.
9. Jolson, a vaudeville singer, was the most popular stage entertainer of the early twentieth century. He made famous such songs as “You Made Me Love You,” “Rock-a-Bye Your Baby with a Dixie Melody,” “Swanee,” “April Showers,” “Toot, Toot, Tootsie, Goodbye,” and “California, Here I Come.” He performed “My Mammy” in blackface in the 1927 movie The Jazz Singer, the first feature film to enjoy widespread commercial success. Jolson was voted “Most Popular Male Vocalist” in a 1948 Variety poll on the back of a film about his life, The Al Jolson Story, which repopularized him to a younger generation. Performing in blackface would be considered racist today but was ubiquitous and unremarkable at the time.
10. “My Mammy,” words by Sam Lewis and Joe Young; music by Walter Donaldson, copyright 1920.
11. Coffee with Congress.
12. Interview with Chuck Peterson.
13. Interview with Clyde Reighard.
14. Interviews with Chuck Peterson, Sharon and Gertrude Martin.
15. Interview with Anthony Vecchione, as quoted in Roger Lowenstein, Buffett: The Making of an American Capitalist. New York: Doubleday, 1996.
16. Peterson recalls that he stuck it out all year—or, well, almost.
17. Don Danly, as quoted in Lowenstein, Buffett. Danly is deceased.
18. Interview with Barbara Worley Potter.
19. Interview with Clyde Reighard.
20. Beja, as quoted in Lowenstein, Buffett. Beja is deceased.
21. Interview with Don Sparks.
22. Shoe-shining was a big thing at Penn; a typical pledge haze was to shine the actives’ shoes.
23. In an interview, Reighard recalled the outlines of the story. Buffett became a close friend of the victim Beja’s roommate, Jerry Oransky (renamed Orans), who is deceased.
24. Interview with Barbara Worley Potter.
25. Interview with Ann Beck MacFarlane, who thinks the date was engineered by her parents and Leila Buffett.
26. Susan Thompson Buffett described her husband circa 1950 this way.
27. Interview with Clyde Reighard.
28. Interview with Bob Feitler.
29. Interview with Clyde Reighard.
30. Interview with Anthony Vecchione, as quoted in Lowenstein, Buffett.
31. Interview with Martin Wiegand.
32. “Buffett Lashes Marshall Plan,” Omaha World-Herald, January 28, 1948. Buffett campaign literature also describes foreign aid as money down the rat hole.
33. June 5, 1948, dedication of Memorial Park.
34. Last will and testament of Frank D. Buffett, filed February 19, 1949.
35. Approved application to the county court of Douglas County, Nebraska, April 14, 1958. The bonds were allowed to mature, since the will said proceeds of any property “sold” could only be invested in U.S. bonds. Given the opportunity cost and interest rates, Howard’s move was wise.
36. Leila Buffett’s day books. “It’s Cold—But Remember that Bitter Winter of ‘48–’49?” Omaha World-Herald, January 6, 1959.
37. Commercial & Financial Chronicle, May 6, 1948.
38. Interview with Doris Buffett.
39. Interview with Lou Battistone.
40. Interview with Sharon Martin.