Myrtle Findley’s Collection of Letters from Servicemen during World War II

During World War II, Myrtle Findley wrote letters to U. S. servicemen throughout the United States, Canada, Europe, and North Africa. One of the collections of documents in the Archives Room of the historical society is a scrapbook donated by Myrtle that contains letters that she received from them in 1943 and 1944.

Myrtle Findley (née Bickford) lived in Sacramento at the time. We don’t have copies of the letters that she wrote to the servicemen, but you can infer from their replies the kinds of things Myrtle talked about in her letters to them. In one letter, she mentioned rhubarb pie, which caused the serviceman to ask,
“Why did you have to mention rubarb [sic] pie? We never have it in the army, and when I go into town none of the restaurants have it either. I’m quite sure I could eat it three times a day. We used to raise it out on my uncle’s farm.”

The servicemen wrote to her about their activities and plans — the kind of details you share with friends and family.

Learn more about Myrtle Findley.

The following letters are copies of the letters that were pasted into Myrtle’s scrapbook.

November 15, no year specified

January 2, 1943

April 5, 1943

The second page of this letter from Leroy in North Africa had been censored with scissors or a knife. This seems to be the same Leroy who sent Myrtle a postcard from a German prisoner-of-war camp 18 months later, on October 4, 1944. Both sides of that postcard are shown below under the date October 4, 1944.

October 3, 1943

This letter was addressed to both Myrtle and her sister Betty.

October 30, 1943

January 1, 1944

February 20, 1944

March 23, 1944

The writer told Myrtle how much he missed rhubarb pie, which she had mentioned in a letter she had written to him. He asked, “Why did you have to mention rubarb [sic] pie? We never have it in the army, and when I go into town none of the restaurants have it either. I’m quite sure I could eat it three times a day. We used to raise it out on my uncle’s farm.”

May 26, 1944

June 6, 1944

This seems to have been written to Myrtle by her sister Betty.

July 9, 1944

October 5, 1944

This postcard from a soldier in a German prisoner-of-war camp, a Kriegsgefangenenlager, may have been written by the same Leroy who wrote the letter to Myrtle on April 5, 1943, which is shown above. The handwriting seems to be the same. This postcard was written 18 months after the above letter.

Undated letter from Myrtle’s brother John

Undated letter