The 4000 letters in this collection center on Gordon T. Kinder (1919-2009) and Ann Cary Stuckey Kinder (1922-88). Both had Ohio roots dating to the 1790s: Gordon in Belmont County along the Ohio River and in Warren and Putnam Counties along the Indiana border, and Cary in Summit and Cuyahoga Counties around Cleveland.
The letters begin in 1941 with Gordon’s graduation from university and his commissioning as an Army artillery officer and with Cary’s second year of college. They take the reader through their meeting in 1942; courtship against the backdrop of war; marriage in 1943; training for the invasion; six months in England; ten months of combat in France, Germany and Austria; and seven months in an Army of occupation.
Both were prodigious letter-writers, as were their families who wrote them regularly. Most letters run more than 600 words.
On the homefront, the Ohio River floods; travel and communication suffer the war’s burdens; childhood diseases come in waves; difficult pregnancies don’t end well; the businesses of law, light manufacturing and coal continue; family gatherings continue but with less and less meat and butter; the casualties mount; and, suddenly, the dreams of peace meet harsh realities.
For the compiler, Gordon & Cary’s oldest son, Peter, reading these letters was like renewing conversations with people long dead. For the most part, the letters read as their writers spoke. Their sensibilities bring back to life family dynamics experienced in the 1950s.
Filters
DATE: 11/08/1943
SENDER: Ann Cary Stuckey Kinder (CSK) SEND LOCATION: Vassar College, Poughkeepsie, NY
RECIPIENT: Gordon Thomas Kinder, Jr. (GTK) RECIPIENT LOCATION: Desert Training Center, Camp Iron Mountain, Twentynine Palms, CA
SUMMARY:
Enjoying roses he sent. Also liked large bird pictures from Paul Miller. Going to Exeter for the Exeter-Andover football game. Started knitting things for Jane C. Kinder and Anne Kinder Jones Eaton, who are pregnant. Funny bit on GTK not telling her what she needed to improve in herself. Going to class for which she was supposed to have read ‘Ulysses’, but she’s only half way through it.
DATE: 11/12/1943
SENDER: Ann Cary Stuckey Kinder (CSK) SEND LOCATION: Boston, MA
RECIPIENT: Gordon Thomas Kinder, Jr. (GTK) RECIPIENT LOCATION: Desert Training Center, Camp Iron Mountain, Twentynine Palms, CA
SUMMARY:
On train on way to Exeter. Left Vassar at 545 a.m. Beautiful ride down the Hudson. Making progress on cardigan for Jane C. Kinder’s baby. Admiring white N.E. houses, hoping she and GTK will live in one with lots of children. Wants to live in a society where money isn’t all important.
DATE: 11/20/1943
SENDER: Ann Cary Stuckey Kinder (CSK) SEND LOCATION: Vassar College, Poughkeepsie, NY
RECIPIENT: Gordon Thomas Kinder, Jr. (GTK) RECIPIENT LOCATION: Desert Training Center, Camp Iron Mountain, Twentynine Palms, CA
SUMMARY:
[Lt. Col. Burtis L.] Fayram left the battalion CSK sorry about it. Sent books to GTK. She finished reading ‘Ulysses’, which she liked, and wrote a paper on it. Hopes for time to really study it. Now reading ‘The Forsyte Saga’ which she is loving. Wants to know what art books he has, as the Vassar Bookstore’s supply is dwindling. Copies Elizabeth Barret Browning’s ‘How do I love thee?’ in the letter. Encloses three Dahl cartoons from the Boston Herald. Dahl was a favorite of hers and her family. Stories on the back of the cartoons give a real sense of the war on the homefront.
DATE: 11/26/1943
SENDER: Ann Cary Stuckey Kinder (CSK) SEND LOCATION: Vassar College, Poughkeepsie, NY
RECIPIENT: Gordon Thomas Kinder, Jr. (GTK) RECIPIENT LOCATION: Desert Training Center, Camp Iron Mountain, Twentynine Palms, CA
SUMMARY:
Love letter.
DATE: 12/19/1943
SENDER: Gordon Thomas Kinder, Jr. (GTK) SEND LOCATION: Redlands, CA
RECIPIENT: Ann Cary Stuckey Kinder (CSK) RECIPIENT LOCATION: Philips Exeter Academy (PEA), Exeter, NH
SUMMARY:
Rain on maneuvers; out of coal for heat.. Reading books Army reprints: ‘The Uninvited’, bio of George Washington Carver.. Col. Clay unhappy with battalion. Reorganisation. Expecting overseas orders. But, hoping for leave in Jan. Writing Christmas letter to family. No family reunion possible until war’s end. Going to have beers and play nickel limit poker. Wants new pipe. Smoking 1 1⁄2 packs of cigarettes a day. John Morris.