Thrift store shopper strikes gold with signed Coolidge autobiography

She goes twice a week.

Like a hunter on safari, Mary McIlrath scouts antique shops, thrift stores and resale shops hoping to bag something valuable.

Turns out, she's pretty good at it.

"I don't know exactly how it works, but there's something inside me says, 'buy it,'" said the 52-year-old Lake Villa woman. "I've had some winners."

Prints, paintings, lithographs, jewelry, wrist watches, porcelain dolls, antique whiskey bottles, wooden nickels, everything and anything is fair game.

She bought a painting by artist Karel Appel for $59 and sold it on eBay for $1,100. "I spotted it tucked behind a bunch of junk and just had a feeling about it," she said. "That's what I do. I look behind, below, above, around. I'm good at finding things."

She snagged a Victorian Mourning Necklace for a few bucks and sold it for more than $700.

It's not about sentiment or emotion, she'll tell you. If she can turn a profit, it's out the door.

"But this...," she says pulling the book from the shelf, "... is my baby. My pride and joy."

She keeps the green, hardcover book wrapped in a towel.

The Autobiography of Calvin Coolidge.

Trolling around a resale shop near Antioch, she heard that voice again. "Buy this," it said. So she did.

While paging through it, McIlrath said, her heart skipped a beat when she saw something scrawled on the third page.

"To Evelyn Hearty, Cordially, Calvin Coolidge."

"Oh my gosh, I couldn't believe it," she said.

But there it was. The book was signed by "Silent Cal" himself.

The signature is the real deal. McIlrath had it verified by an auction house in Chicago.

She thinks maybe the former president signed it during a campaign swing through Lake County, but can't be sure.

Coolidge was vice president under Warren G. Harding and took office after Harding died. The Republican from Vermont ran for re-election in 1924 and won.

The book might fetch more than $1,000, but McIlrath says she isn't looking for quick cash.

"I would really like it to sell it to someone who has a personal interest in Coolidge," she said. "I don't want to sell it to just anybody."