Did You Know … The Reading Room Was Named After Ambassador Caffery?

Today marks the 50th anniversary of the death of Jefferson Caffery. Ambassador Caffery was born Dec. 1, 1886, in Lafayette. He was a member of the first graduating class of Southwestern Louisiana Industrial Institute, now the University of Louisiana at Lafayette. After graduating from Tulane in 1906, he was admitted as a member of the Bar in 1908. While studying for the Bar, he was head football coach of SLI.

He then passed the qualification examinations for the State Department Foreign Service and received his first diplomatic appointment as secretary of legation in Venezuela in 1911. By 1926 he was named Minister to Salvador before becoming Assistant Secretary of State on July 11, 1933. In 1934 while Ambassador to Cuba, he narrowly escaped an assassination attempt because he left earlier than usual to go to mass.

On Nov. 20, 1937, at the age of 41, he married Gertrude McCarthy of Indiana while stationed in Rio de Janeiro. Upon his retirement in 1955, the couple decided to move to Rome where he was an honorary Papal gentleman to Popes Pius XII, John XXII, and Paul VI. They returned to Lafayette in 1973 and Mrs. Caffery died shortly thereafter. The ambassador died less than a year later on April 13, 1974. The couple was buried in a private garden behind St. John’s Cathedral office buildings in downtown Lafayette. A marker near their graves reads, “The burial place of American Ambassador Rtd. And Mrs. Jefferson Caffery Through the kindness of their Bishop Oct. 1967”.

For more information on the Ambassador and the inventory of his collection housed here in the archives at Special Collections, view Collection 45.

The Jefferson Caffery Reading Room for Special Collections and the annual Caffery Competition scholarship are both named in his honor.