Einar Gustafson

Early life

Einar Gustafson was born on a potato farm in New Sweden, Maine. At age 12, while walking to school, he developed abdominal pain. After two surgeries, he was sent to Boston and admitted to the newly founded Children's Hospital: Dana–Farber Cancer Institute. Diagnosed with non-Hodgkin's lymphoma by Dr. Sidney Farber, Gustafson was among the first children to receive chemotherapy; survival rates then were 20 to 30 percent.

Bill Koster of the Variety Club of New England, with Farber, asked radio host Ralph Edwards to broadcast Truth or Consequences from the children's ward to raise money. A poster child was needed, and Gustafson, who did not have leukemia, was chosen. During the broadcast, Edwards gave him the pseudonym 'Jimmy' and said the boy did not know he had cancer. Players from the Boston Braves—Warren Spahn, Eddie Stanky, and Phil Masi—surprised him in his room, and manager Billy Southworth gave him a tailored Braves uniform. When asked what he wanted, Gustafson said a television set so all the children in the ward could watch the Braves play.

Later life

After his cancer went into remission, Gustafson returned to the family farm in New Sweden, Maine. He married his high school sweetheart in 1957, moved to Buzzards Bay, Massachusetts, and started a long-distance trucking business. The couple had three daughters. After his first wife died in 1986, he married Gloria and moved back to New Sweden.

For decades his whereabouts were unknown; the institute assumed he had died. In 1997 his sister sent a letter with her Jimmy Fund donation stating he was alive. The letter was initially dismissed but later found by Karen Cummings, who wrote back that they assumed he had died. Gustafson then called, saying 'This is Jimmy.

Heard you were looking for me.' He still had the Braves uniform. In 1998 he reunited with Ralph Edwards at Fenway Park. In 1999 Ted Williams met him at the institute. Gustafson was named honorary chairman of the Jimmy Fund that year. He died of a stroke in Caribou, Maine.