A 53-year-old letter sent by John F Kennedy to a little girl who was a big fan of the charismatic US president is going up for sale in Philadelphia.

A dealer of rare documents is selling the short typed letter to five-year-old Rita Knight for $15,000.

But the company has so far been unable to find any current information on Rita, who would now be in her late 50s.

Rita's father wrote to Mr Kennedy to share an anecdote about his daughter hoping to use two cents to buy a bus ticket to Washington from her home in Louisville, Kentucky.

Mr Kennedy wrote to Rita in response and in the letter, dated March 29, 1962, he says he is sending it "to surprise you and say 'hello'."

President Kennedy was assassinated a year later in Dallas, Texas.

Raab Collection president Nathan Raab said the correspondence was remarkable because so few letters from Mr Kennedy to children had survived.

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