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<p>[QUOTE=&quot;Marko, post: 9726186, member: 210&quot;]Happy Valentine&#039;s Day.&nbsp; I spent a lot of time researching the four people involved in Helene&#039;s letters.&nbsp; I will start with the one letter from Sam.&nbsp; Sam has a very common surname, so I could not find anything out about him.</p><p><br /></p><p>Dick had an interesting life.&nbsp; He was born 6-19-20, pasded away 9-26-10.&nbsp; He was a Lieutenant in the Navy during WWII.&nbsp; He was from the same area as Helene and Herman, grew up there.&nbsp; He had a BA from Ursinus College, and a Masters from Clark University. He then received an electrical engineer degree from RPI and was employed by General Electric in Syracuse NY.&nbsp; He was stationed in Rhode Island when he was writing to Helene, and he married a woman named Marion from Newport RI on 9-9-47.&nbsp; They had two daughters, Barbara and Marjorie.&nbsp; They were married until death parted them.</p><p><br /></p><p>Herman was a PFC in the US Marine Corp during WWII.&nbsp; He was drafted in 1940.&nbsp; His letters were sent from various places on the East Coast, many from Cherry Point SC, some from RI.&nbsp; He was born 10-22-23, died 4-15-85.&nbsp; I don&#039;t know if he was stateside during the war.&nbsp; He worked for a railroad company after the war.</p><p><br /></p><p><br /></p><p>Now to Helene.&nbsp; She lived to age 94, passing away on 12-7-18.&nbsp; Her father was from Spain, her mother from NY.&nbsp; She lost her parents at an early age and was raised by two aunts.&nbsp; She worked as a reporter for a local daily newspaper (hence her love of writing.)&nbsp; Her obituary states &quot;she married the love of her life, Herman.&quot;&nbsp; I found their marriage license, which was issued on 9-9-47.&nbsp; They had two children, a son named Bradlee (born 1948) and a daughter Iris (born 1950).&nbsp; Both children are now deceased.&nbsp; I could not find Bradlee&#039;s obituary, so I don&#039;t know if he had children.&nbsp; I did find Iris&#039;s.&nbsp; She was 71 when she passed on 12-1-22.&nbsp; She had a daughter, Romina, who passed before she did at age 56, not married, no children. She had a son, Thomas, who passed shortly after she did at age 55 in 2023.&nbsp; Thomas had two children, and after researching them, let me just say I can see why the letters ended up where they did.</p><p><br /></p><p>I found a few pictures.&nbsp; The best resource I found after Googling was Find A Grave.&nbsp; It&#039;s where I found the copy of their marriage certificate.&nbsp; This is the one picture I found of Helene; I used an app that applies a youthful appearance to see what she may have looked like when she was writing to the service men.</p><p>Helene older</p><p>[ATTACH=full]472509[/ATTACH] </p><p>Helene using youth app</p><p>[ATTACH=full]472510[/ATTACH] </p><p>Iris, their daughter</p><p>[ATTACH=full]472511[/ATTACH] </p><p>Iris&#039;s son, Thomas</p><p>[ATTACH=full]472512[/ATTACH] </p><p>Iris&#039;s daughter, Romina</p><p>[ATTACH=full]472513[/ATTACH] </p><p>Bradlee&#039;s grave stone.</p><p>[ATTACH=full]472514[/ATTACH] </p><p>Helene and Herman&#039;s grave stone</p><p>[ATTACH=full]472516[/ATTACH][/QUOTE]</p><p><br /></p>

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