Woman promises 4,000 WWII letters to Historical Society

[Jim O]

On Oct. 24, 1942, Elaine Ransom, teary-eyed at the Rutland train station, waved her future husband off to World War II with the promise they'd write each other faithfully. And so they did as Robert Ransom went to Massachusetts, then Kentucky, Alabama, the West Coast and the Pacific, collecting 4,000 letters by the time the Army draftee returned to Vermont with the end of the war three years later.

Elaine Ransom has cherished that correspondence ever since, especially after her husband died in 1999. On Tuesday, to preserve those memories for future generations, the 82-year-old marked the anniversary of that train departure by promising her letters to the Vermont Historical Society.

The collection isn't just personal, but also a state and national treasure, experts agree. Andrew Carroll, the historian behind the best-selling book and PBS documentary "War Letters," came to Rutland to examine the letters last year.

"You have something unique here," Carroll told Ransom. "It's probably the largest single collection I've ever seen."

In an age of e-mail, each paper envelope is a reminder of simpler, yet scarier, times. Consider the cursive penmanship in blue ink from a bottle. The 6-cent airmail stamp. The faraway postmarks with the words "Passed by U.S. Army Examiner" — an assurance from officials who read all soldiers' letters out of concern that "Loose Lips Sink Ships."

Adding to the collection's uniqueness is the fact Robert Ransom found a way to save every letter his wife mailed him more than 5,000 miles away.

"In any war zone," Carroll said, "it's very hard to hold on to letters."

J. Kevin Graffagnino, executive director of the Vermont Historical Society, knows that, too. Learning about the collection, he offered Ransom a safe home for the letters at the society's headquarters in Barre.

Ransom signed a letter of intent on Tuesday bequeathing her correspondence upon her death. But the society isn't expecting to receive the collection anytime soon. Ransom, a lively and outspoken city resident, recently was pictured on the front page of this paper submitting her property taxes in person with the written note, "I am paying this under protest."

Decades after first picking up a pen, Ransom is still making a statement.


Source: Rutland Herald