NASHVILLE, Tenn. — Highlights from a trove of greater than 200 love letters that inform the story of a pair’s courtship and marriage throughout World Warfare II at the moment are on show digitally by means of the Nashville Public Library, providing an intimate image of affection throughout wartime.
The letters by William Raymond Whittaker and Jane Dean have been present in a Nashville residence that had belonged to Jane and her siblings. They have been donated in 2016 to the Metro Nashville Archives.
Whittaker, who glided by Ray, was from New Rochelle, New York. He moved to the Tennessee capital to attend the traditionally Black Meharry Medical School, in line with the library’s metropolitan archivist, Kelley Sirko. That is the place he met and dated Jane, one other pupil on the faculty.
The pair misplaced contact when Ray left Nashville. In the summertime of 1942 he was drafted into the Army. Stationed at Fort Huachuca in Arizona, he determined to reestablish contact with Jane, who was then working as a medical lab technician at Vanderbilt College.
A ‘nice and unhappy shock’
The library does not have Ray’s first letter to Jane, nevertheless it does have her reply. She greets him considerably formally as “Pricey Wm R.”
“It positive was a nice and unhappy shock to listen to from you,” she writes on July 30, 1942. “Nice as a result of you’ll all the time maintain a spot in my coronary heart and its good to know you consider me infrequently. Unhappy since you are within the armed forces — possibly I shouldn’t say that however struggle is so unsure, nevertheless I’m proud to know that you’re doing all of your bit to your nation.”
Jane then goes on to record — maybe as a touch? — a string of mutual acquaintances who’ve gotten married lately, noting those that have had youngsters or are rumored to be having youngsters. She indicators off, “Write, wire or name me actual quickly — Lovingly Jane.”
A narrative informed in letters
“You may’t assist however smile if you learn by means of these letters,” Sirko mentioned. “You actually can’t. And this was simply such an intimate take a look at two common individuals throughout a extremely sophisticated time in our historical past.”
Sirko mentioned Nashville archivists haven’t been in a position to find any residing family of Ray and Jane, so most of what they find out about them is from the letters. The couple didn’t have any youngsters, in line with an obituary for Ray, who died in Nashville in 1989.
The donation additionally included just a few pictures and Ray’s patch from the traditionally Black fraternity Alpha Phi Alpha.
Past a love story, the gathering provides “this in-the-moment perspective of … what it’s like simply navigating sure racial points, sure gender points, their work, the lifetime of a soldier, all of this stuff,” Sirko mentioned. That is why the archivists needed to make it extra accessible to the general public.
Love and doubts
Simply two months after the primary letters, the romance has heated up. Ray has been assigned to Fort McClellan in Alabama, the place he’ll assist arrange the reactivated — and segregated — 92nd Infantry Division, which went on to see fight in Europe.
In an undated letter from September 1942, he tells Jane, “I’ve one thing crucial to inform you once I do see you and you can be shock to know as to what it’s.
“I would even ask you to marry me. One by no means is aware of.”
He teases her by saying that if he goes to officer coaching college, he’ll be capable to “draw down a fats juicey wage” — about $280 a month if he’s married and $175 if single.
“Actually I can not depart my extra sum of money to the federal government and will need to have somebody to assist me spend it,” he writes.
At first Jane is skeptical. “What makes you assume you continue to love me?” she asks on Sept. 23. “Is it that you’re lonesome and a good distance from residence. I’m positive I would like you to like me however not beneath these circumstances.”
A Sept. 24 letter from Ray is extra critical. “Occasions are altering so quickly lately that one cannot actually plan for the longer term. However I’m going to make a decisive determination in issues of most importances,” he writes.
Ray says that he had thought he and Jane couldn’t be collectively as a result of they lived to this point aside. He says he dated different ladies however “I didn’t discover the companionship and love that I so dearly needed to seek out. All I bumped into was bother and extra bother.”
A ‘darling husband’
Quickly Ray wins her over, and they’re married on Nov. 7 in Birmingham.
In a letter from Nov. 9, Jane addresses Ray as “my darling husband.” She is rapturous in regards to the marriage however unhappy that the couple has to stay aside for now. She has already returned to her job and household in Nashville whereas he has returned to the Army base.
“It’s a beautiful factor to have such and candy and beautiful husband. Darling you’ll by no means understand how a lot I like you. The one remorse is that we did not marry years in the past… As it’s now issues are so unsure and we’re not collectively however such just a few glad hours. However possibly this outdated struggle will quickly be over and we will be collectively for all the time.”
She concludes, “Darling be candy and write to me quickly. I desire a letter from my husband. Bear in mind I’ll all the time love you. At all times — from Your Spouse”
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