Donna Reed and the G.I.'s of WWII
Early in her career, years before her Oscar for FROM HERE TO ETERNITY or her eponymous TV show, actress Donna Reed was a pinup girl beloved by servicemen serving in WWII.Studios usually discarded letters from soldiers after fulfilling requests for photos of their favorite actresses, but Donna Reed's children discovered a shoebox full of letters from soldiers stored in her garage.
341 letters were catalogued by Reed's daughter, Mary Owen.
The New York Times interviewed one of Reed's correspondents, who is now 84 and lives in Covina, California.
It's a touching story which makes excellent Memorial Day reading.
(Hat tip: Bob & Dusty's Whirl-a-Go-Go via Thrilling Days of Yesteryear.)
posted by Laura @ 6:56 PM
1 Comments:
This was a lovely story and Donna Reed really seemed to genuinely care about the troops. I particularly liked the soldier who grew up with her and wondered what their friends were doing, etc. Very touching.
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