Ken Duckett served as archivist of SIU in the 1960s and 1970s, according to newspaper records. SIU officials estimate he served there between 1965 and 1979, when he went to the University of Oregon and retired there as Curator of Special Collection.

Duckett came into possession of the letters in 1963, just before coming to SIU, when as manuscripts curator of the Ohio Historical Society, he accepted the correspondence on behalf of the society, according to an article that appeared in The Southern in 1972, which was based off an extensive interview with Duckett.

Phillips’ guardian and lawyer found and retained the letters, which were hidden in a box in Phillips’ home in Marion, Ohio. She died there in 1960. That lawyer turned them over to biographer Francis Russell, who was working with Duckett, and who wrote “The Shadow of Blooming Grove,” according to the Library of Congress.

Robenalt described Duckett and Russell as “co-conspirators who came up with a screwball plan.” They had schemed up a plan to microfilm the letters and send them to various repositories and libraries. The letters would then be released after Russell published his biography.