200 love letters found in a Nashville home tell the story of a couple's
courtship during WWII
[February 12, 2026]
By TRAVIS LOLLER
NASHVILLE, Tenn. (AP) — Highlights from a trove of more than 200 love
letters that tell the story of a couple's courtship and marriage during
World War II are now on display digitally through the Nashville Public
Library, offering an intimate picture of love during wartime.
The letters by William Raymond Whittaker and Jane Dean were found in a
Nashville home that had belonged to Jane and her siblings. They were
donated in 2016 to the Metro Nashville Archives.
Whittaker, who went by Ray, was from New Rochelle, New York. He moved to
the Tennessee capital to attend the historically Black Meharry Medical
College, according to the library's metropolitan archivist, Kelley Sirko.
That's where he met and dated Jane, another student at the college.
The pair lost touch when Ray left Nashville. In the summer of 1942 he
was drafted into the Army. Stationed at Fort Huachuca in Arizona, he
decided to reestablish contact with Jane, who was then working as a
medical lab technician at Vanderbilt University.
A 'pleasant and sad surprise'
The library doesn't have Ray's first letter to Jane, but it does have
her reply. She greets him somewhat formally as “Dear Wm R.”
“It sure was a pleasant and sad surprise to hear from you," she writes
on July 30, 1942. "Pleasant because you will always hold a place in my
heart and its nice to know you think of me once in a while. Sad because
you are in the armed forces — maybe I shouldn’t say that but war is so
uncertain, however I’m proud to know that you are doing your bit for
your country.”
Jane then goes on to list — perhaps as a hint? — a string of mutual
acquaintances who have gotten married recently, noting those who have
had children or are rumored to be having children. She signs off,
“Write, wire or call me real soon — Lovingly Jane.”
A story told in letters
“You can’t help but smile when you read through these letters,” Sirko
said. “You really can’t. And this was just such an intimate look at two
regular people during a really complicated time in our history.”
Sirko said Nashville archivists have not been able to locate any living
relatives of Ray and Jane, so most of what they know about them is from
the letters. The couple did not have any children, according to an
obituary for Ray, who died in Nashville in 1989.
The donation also included a few photographs and Ray's patch from the
historically Black fraternity Alpha Phi Alpha.
Beyond a love story, the collection gives "this in-the-moment
perspective of ... what it’s like just navigating certain racial issues,
certain gender issues, their work, the life of a soldier, all of these
things," Sirko said. That's why the archivists wanted to make it more
accessible to the public.
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An envelope from a Black soldier stationed in Alabama written to his
wife in Nashville in 1942 shows a stamp that says "Idle Gossip Sinks
Ships" Monday, Feb. 9, 2026 in Nashville, Tenn. (AP Photo/Kristin M.
Hall)
Love and doubts
Just two months after the first letters, the romance has heated up.
Ray has been assigned to Fort McClellan in Alabama, where he will
help organize the reactivated — and segregated — 92nd Infantry
Division, which went on to see combat in Europe.
In an undated letter from September 1942, he tells Jane, “I have
something very important to tell you when I do see you and you will
be surprise to know as to what it is.
"I might even ask you to marry me. One never knows.”
He teases her by saying that if he goes to officer training school,
he will be able to “draw down a fat juicey salary” — about $280 a
month if he is married and $175 if single.
“Really I can't leave my excess amount of money to the government
and must have someone to help me spend it," he writes.
At first Jane is skeptical. “What makes you think you still love
me?” she asks on Sept. 23. “Is it that you are lonesome and a long
way from home. I’m sure I want you to love me but not under those
conditions.”
A Sept. 24 letter from Ray is more serious. “Events are changing so
rapidly these days that one can't really plan for the future. But I
am going to make a decisive decision in matters of most importances,"
he writes.
Ray says that he had thought he and Jane could not be together
because they lived so far apart. He says he dated other women but “I
didn’t find the companionship and love that I so dearly wanted to
find. All I ran into was trouble and more trouble.”
A ‘darling husband’
Soon Ray wins her over, and they are married on Nov. 7 in
Birmingham.
In a letter from Nov. 9, Jane addresses Ray as “my darling husband.”
She is rapturous about the marriage but sad that the couple has to
remain apart for now. She has already returned to her job and family
in Nashville while he has returned to the Army base.
“It’s a wonderful thing to have such a sweet and lovely husband.
Darling you’ll never know how much I love you. The only regret is
that we didn't marry years ago... As it is now things are so
uncertain and we are not together but such a few happy hours. But
maybe this old war will soon be over and we can be together for
always."
She concludes, “Darling be sweet and write to me soon. I want a
letter from my husband. Remember I’ll always love you. Always — from
Your Wife”
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