200 World War II love letters from Nashville displayed online

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The Nashville Public Library has put more than 200 World War II-era love letters online, offering an intimate account of how William Raymond Whittaker and Jane Dean courted and married during wartime. The display draws from a trove found in a Nashville home and later donated to the Metro Nashville Archives, where archivists have used the letters to reconstruct the couple’s story.

Whittaker, who went by “Ray,” was from New Rochelle, New York. He moved to Nashville to attend the historically Black Meharry Medical College, according to archivist Kelley Sirko, and there met Jane Dean, also a Meharry student.

The letters document how the relationship shifted when Whittaker left Nashville and later was drafted into the Army. Sirko said Whittaker and Dean lost touch after he departed; in the summer of 1942, Whittaker was drafted and later stationed at Fort Huachuca in Arizona, prompting him to reestablish contact.

The library’s digital display does not include Whittaker’s first letter to Dean, but it does include her reply. On July 30, 1942, Dean wrote “Dear Wm R.” and told him, “It sure was a pleasant and sad surprise to hear from you,” adding that it was “pleasant” to know he held a place in her heart, and “sad” that he was now in the armed forces.

In that same reply, Dean listed a string of shared acquaintances who had recently married, noting which of them had children or were rumored to be having children. She closed with, “Write, wire or call me real soon — Lovingly Jane,” underscoring the couple’s reliance on correspondence while separated by war and distance.

As the romance deepened, the letters also show the practical realities of military assignment and uncertainty. After two months of letters, Whittaker wrote that he had been assigned to Fort McClellan in Alabama, where he would help organize the reactivated—and segregated—92nd Infantry Division that later saw combat in Europe. In an undated letter from September 1942, he told Dean he had something “very important” to share when they saw each other and suggested, “I might even ask you to marry me. One never knows.”

Dean’s letters show initial skepticism before they move toward commitment. On Sept. 23, she asked, “What makes you think you still love me?” and questioned whether he was lonely and far from home, saying she wanted to love him but “not under those conditions.” A Sept. 24 letter from Whittaker turned more serious, with him writing that “Events are changing so rapidly” and that he planned to make “a decisive decision in matters of most importances,” describing that while he had dated other women, he said he had not found “the companionship and love” he wanted.

The letters also capture how salary, work, and plans could become part of the wartime conversation. Whittaker teased Dean that if he went to officer training school, he would be able to “draw down a fat juicey salary,” comparing about $280 a month if he was married and $175 if he was single. He wrote that he could not leave his “excess amount of money to the government” and would need someone to help him spend it.

Whittaker and Dean ultimately married on Nov. 7 in Birmingham. In a Nov. 9 letter, Dean addressed Whittaker as “my darling husband” and wrote about their separation, saying it was “a wonderful thing to have such a sweet and lovely husband” even as she lamented that they had to remain apart for now because she had returned to her job and family in Nashville while he was back at his Army base.

The Nov. 9 letter described the marriage as full of feeling but shadowed by uncertainty. Dean wrote that she and Whittaker could share only “such a few happy hours” while “things are so uncertain,” and she ended by urging him to “write to me soon,” saying, “Remember I’ll always love you. Always — from Your Wife.”

Sirko said Nashville archivists have not found any living relatives for Whittaker and Dean, and most of what they know about the couple comes from the letters. The donation to the archives included not only the correspondence but also photographs and Whittaker’s patch from Alpha Phi Alpha, and the archives and library said that context is part of why they sought to make the collection more accessible to the public.