Please accept our thanks for your contributions, this year and every year. Over nearly half a century, your generosity has added up to more than $1 million in Christmas Happiness gifts —all to provide holiday cheer for disadvantaged children and senior citizens. This year’s contributions amounted to $62,483 to date —well above the $1,811 raised in the fund’s first year.

The gifts come in all sizes, from children’s pennies to $1,000 checks, with many other contributions in between. Some come with long tributes. Some are strictly anonymous. All carry with them a spirit of caring and giving that helps set this community apart.

It all started simply enough back in ’52. Spencer Murphy, then editor of the Post, heard that some 600 children in more than 250 families faced Christmas in dire straits. They likely would receive no gifts on Christmas morning. They were lacking so many essentials —good food, warm coats, shoes that fit.

Murphy issued an appeal to the readers of the Salisbury Post. If they would send money in, the Post would list their contributions in the paper and hand the money over to what was then the Welfare Department for distribution to those families. “Time is short,” he wrote. “If you would like to help make a miracle, won’t you hurry?”

Though Murphy worked in a hard-news world, he was a notoriously soft-hearted man. One reporter described him thusly: “Six feet and one inch tall, Murphy is 200 pounds of abject sympathy for the human race. He is a sucker for panhandlers .... little children, stray dogs, other people’s troubles, good books, good music and the underdog.”