54 years later, stamp from Ga. makes it to collector's N.Y. kin

BATAVIA, NEW YORK - On the morning of November 9, 1948, someone in Athens, mailed a small envelope to F. Fromm at 155 Harvester Avenue, Batavia. It bore no return address. <br> <br> The envelope, which held only a piece of blank cardboard, showed up in the mailbox just about a week ago. <br> <br> Surprised homeowner Gina Elmore retrieved it from the box, and showed it to her husband, James. <br> <br> The yellowed envelope bore four, three-cent U.S. stamps and a seemingly authentic postmark. It was addressed lightly in pencil. <br> <br> There was evidence it had come through the U.S. postal system recently; someone had scrawled two partial ZIP codes, in ink, on the front: 100, crossed out, and then 140 -- the prefix for Batavia, 35 miles east of Buffalo. The ZIP code system used today was still about 15 years away in 1948. On the back was another contemporary hallmark, a postal bar-code in orange fluorescent ink. <br> <br> The Elmores were intrigued. They moved to 155 Harvester in 1991, and had never heard of F. Fromm. A quick check of the Batavia telephone directory turned up no one with that last name. <br> <br> The four stamps were canceled with the words ``first day of issue,&#39;&#39; typically used for commemorative ``first day&#39;&#39; covers, on which stamps are postmarked near a location significant to the subject celebrated on the stamp. <br> <br> And because the stamps are what collectors are really after, such envelopes generally carry only a stiff piece of cardboard to keep them from being mangled in transit. <br> <br> The stamps bear a portrait of Moina Michael, founder of the poppy campaigns staged around Veterans and Memorial days. Michael, a Georgia native and college professor in Athens, died in 1944. <br> <br> Extensive research turned up a Fromm survivor -- 60-year-old Tom Casey, Fromm&#39;s great nephew. <br> <br> Casey said, ``My uncle was an avid stamp collector. He collected for, probably, 70 years, starting when he was a young boy. He&#39;d be amazed. He&#39;d probably get as big a kick out of it as I&#39;m getting.&#39;&#39;