The year is 1938. Cyrus B. Stafford, Jr. is struggling to afford college at Purdue. His dear friend Martha Willis Kennedy (“Marty”), is in Pasadena, California, unhappy in a marriage that is dissolving. The winds of war are blowing across Europe, but most Americans are not very interested. They still remember the terrible toll of The Great War and the country is still climbing out of the Great Depression. And so begins a most unlikely romance between two people who rarely get to see each other over the next six years, but their relationship is sustained by written letters. All of Buddy’s letters were saved by Marty and ultimately passed on to me. The purpose of this blog is to share those letters and let the story unfold for the reader in near real time, more than 75 years later. The story provides a rare glimpse into the day to day life of one of those courageous, romantic young men who came to be known as a member of “The Greatest Generation”.
The letter posts are arranged in chronological order, beginning in December 1936. Please see the brief profiles about Marty and Cyrus, then go to The Letters and enjoy. As the author/editor of this blog, I have transcribed the letters verbatim, to the best of my ability, with minor corrections to punctuation and spelling. I have provided some photographs and notes of important, contemporary events to provide some historical context, along with Marty & Cy’s photos that survived and were passed on to me. If you have any questions or comments as you are reading the letters, please leave them in the comments section after the post and I will be happy to provide any additional information I can provide. (You may want to make a note of where you stopped so that you can easily come back and pick up where you left off).
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