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Date: 5/7/2019
WEST SPRINGFIELD – In 2017 Corinne Smith made a discovery that gave her insight into her mother’s life and exposed her to connections she never knew her family had. Smith discovered over 100 letters between her mother and 16 soldiers during World War II. Smith knew that her goal with these letters was to return them to their respective families, but also to use them as a learning opportunity to teach people about WW II.
Smith hosted a presentation at West Springfield Public Library on May 7.
Smith has been a librarian for over 30 years and has written two books on Henry David Thoreau. In 2017 Smith moved from Pennsylvania to Massachusetts. This is when Smith found the letters. Because of her background in storytelling, Smith knew she wanted to return the letters to the families and use this as a teaching opportunity about the reality for young soldiers in World War II.
At the time her mother was corresponding with the soldiers she was 17 years old. Many of the men she was talking to were neighborhood friends she had grown up with. Because a draft was put into place during this war, many of the men she was speaking with were just as young as she was.
Smith was able to return five of the letters to their families within a couple of months of the discovery. Smith shared with Reminder Publishing that her process of finding these families starts with Googling the soldiers obituaries. Typically in an obituary it is listed who the deceased is leaving behind. Through the names listed, Smith has been able to find either children or grandchildren of the men who wrote the letters. She has made photocopies of the letters to keep for her presentations but returns the original copies to the families.
“It has been really interesting for me to piece together how my mom and family knew the men she was talking with,” Smith said. “Many of them were from my mom’s hometown of Allentown, Pennsylvania.”
Smith has been able to return letters to 12 out of the 16 families, she is in the process of trying to locate the remaining four. Out of the 12 families that Smith has spoken with, each family has shared that their soldier returned home from war.
“Reading the letters helped me to learn a lot about the war ... I was no World War II buff; I had a lot I had to learn,” Smith shared, “In the letters the men talked about everything but the war. They were very friendly and talked about the books they were reading during their down time, one man even shared photographs he had taken.”
Smith said it was apparent that the letters were read before they were officially mailed out. Many of the letters contain multiple lines that are completely crossed out if they contain any information about the war or the location they are writing from.
The presentation that Smith puts on is educational for anyone who would like to learn more about soldiers lives in WWII. Her goal from these presentations is to encourage anyone else who has artifacts from WWII or any other past war to share them and investigate them.
“People have come to my presentations and admitted they have letters as well but that they are afraid to read them.’ Smith commented, “Often times they are letters between parents and they feel like they are crossing a privacy line.”
Smith has presented her story in libraries in Connecticut, all over Massachusetts and up in New Hampshire. She is hoping to continue to reach out to libraries in other towns and states to share her mother’s story and the story of these soldiers.
“Doing this has helped me to feel closer to my mom again since her passing,” said Smith, “Now I know something about her past I never knew anything about.”
To learn more about Corinne Smith, her presentations or her books, her website is http://www.corinnehsmith.com/momswwiiletters.htm. The calendar of events at West Springfield Public Library, it can be found on their website http://www.wspl.org/news-events/events .