2026-02-11T07:05:00-0500 / CBS/AP
超过200封情书的精选内容如今通过纳什维尔公共图书馆以数字形式展出，这些信件讲述了一对情侣在二战期间的恋爱与婚姻故事，为我们呈现了战时爱情的亲密画卷。
这些由威廉·雷蒙德·惠特克（William Raymond Whittaker）和简·迪恩（Jane Dean）书写的信件，是在纳什维尔一处曾属于简及其兄弟姐妹的住宅中被发现的。2016年，这些信件被捐赠给了纳什维尔大都会档案馆。大都会档案馆的莎拉·阿恩茨（Sarah Arntz）告诉哥伦比亚广播公司（CBS）旗下的WTVF电视台，这些信件是在靠近如今音乐街区的一处住宅的壁炉附近被找到的。
图书馆的大都会档案管理员凯利·瑟科（Kelley Sirko）表示，化名“雷”的惠特克来自纽约新罗谢尔（New Rochelle），他来到田纳西州首府，就读于历史悠久的黑人医学院梅哈里医学院（Meharry Medical College）。正是在那里，他遇到了同样就读于该校的简，并开始与她约会。
当雷离开纳什维尔时，两人失去了联系。1942年夏天，他被征召入伍，驻扎在亚利桑那州的胡丘卡堡（Fort Huachuca）。他决定重新与当时在范德堡大学担任医学实验室技术人员的简恢复联系。
“既愉快又悲伤的惊喜”
图书馆没有雷写给简的第一封信，但保存着她的回信。她在信中有些正式地称呼他为“亲爱的威廉·雷”。
“收到你的来信，真是既愉快又悲伤的惊喜，”她在1942年7月30日写道，“愉快是因为你永远在我心中占据一席之地，得知你偶尔还会想起我，真好。悲伤是因为你身处军队——也许我不该这么说，但战争是如此不确定，不过我很自豪能知道你在为国家尽一份力。”
简随后列出了一连串近期结婚的共同熟人（或许是一种暗示？），并提到谁有了孩子或据传怀孕了。她在信的结尾写道：“请尽快写信、发电报或打电话给我——爱你的简。”
书信中讲述的故事
“翻阅这些信件时，你会忍不住微笑，”瑟科说，“真的会。在我们历史上那段非常复杂的时期，这是对两个普通人的亲密写照。”
瑟科表示，纳什维尔的档案管理员尚未找到雷和简的任何在世亲属，因此他们对这对夫妇的了解大多来自这些信件。根据雷1989年在纳什维尔去世后的讣告，这对夫妇没有孩子。
捐赠品中还包括几张照片和雷从历史悠久的黑人兄弟会阿尔法·普西·阿尔法（Alpha Phi Alpha）获得的徽章。
瑟科称，除了爱情故事，这些信件还提供了“当时的视角……比如他们如何应对某些种族问题、性别问题，军人的生活、工作等方方面面”。这也是档案管理员希望让公众更易获取这些信件的原因。
WTVF电视台报道称，这些信件还让人们得以一窥二战期间非裔美国士兵的生活。在其中一封信中，简敦促雷在阿拉巴马州时要小心。
爱情与疑虑
仅仅在第一次通信两个月后，两人的恋情就升温了。雷被分配到阿拉巴马州的麦克莱伦堡（Fort McClellan），在那里他将协助重组——并实施种族隔离的——第92步兵师，该师后来在欧洲参战。
在1942年9月的一封未注明日期的信中，他告诉简：“等我见到你时，我有件非常重要的事要告诉你，你会惊讶于我要说什么。
“我甚至可能会请求你嫁给我。谁也说不准。”
他调侃道，如果他去军官学校，就能“拿到一笔丰厚的薪水”——如果已婚，月薪约280美元；单身则为175美元。
“说真的，我不能把多余的钱留给政府，必须有人帮我花掉，”他写道。
起初简持怀疑态度。“你凭什么认为你还爱着我？”她在9月23日问道，“是因为你感到孤独，离家很远吗？我当然希望你爱我，但不是在那种情况下。”
9月24日雷的信则更为严肃。“如今事态变化如此迅速，人们真的无法为未来做计划。但我会在最重要的事情上做出决定性的决定，”他写道。
雷表示，他曾以为他和简因为相隔太远而无法在一起。他说自己也曾与其他女性约会，但“我没有找到我如此渴望找到的陪伴和爱。我遇到的只有麻烦和更多的麻烦。”
“亲爱的丈夫”
很快，雷赢得了她的芳心，两人于11月7日在伯明翰举行了婚礼。
档案管理员告诉WTVF电视台，雷退伍后，这对夫妇曾在纽约市外居住了一段时间，后来才搬到纳什维尔。
在11月9日的一封信中，简称呼雷为“我亲爱的丈夫”。她对这场婚姻欣喜若狂，但也为两人目前不得不分离而感到难过。她已经回到纳什维尔的工作和家人身边，而雷则回到了军事基地。
“有你这样一位甜蜜可爱的丈夫，真是件美妙的事。亲爱的，你永远不会知道我有多爱你。唯一的遗憾是我们没有在几年前就结婚……现在，一切都如此不确定，我们在一起的幸福时光如此短暂。但也许这场旧战争很快就会结束，我们就能永远在一起了。”
她在信的结尾写道：“亲爱的，要乖，尽快给我写信。我想要一封来自我丈夫的信。记住，我会永远爱你。永远爱你的妻子。”
这张由纳什维尔公共图书馆提供的未注明日期照片的数字扫描件显示，威廉·雷蒙德·惠特克（左）和他的妻子简·迪恩·惠特克在田纳西州纳什维尔合影。AP
（注：文中涉及的人物肖像及信件内容均为原文引用的历史文献）
Love letters between WWII soldier, future wife found in Nashville home: “Something very important to tell you”
2026-02-11T07:05:00-0500 / CBS/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. Sarah Arntz with Metro Archives told CBS affilaite WTVF the letters were found near a fireplace at a home close to what is now Music Row.
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.”
A letter from a soldier assigned to the 92nd Infantry Division, an all-Black military unit during World War II, to his wife in Nashville is seen Monday, Feb. 9, 2026 in Nashville, Tenn. Kristin M. Hall / AP
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.
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. Kristin M. Hall / AP
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.
The letters also offer glimpses of what life was like for an African American soldier in World War II, WTVF reported. In one of the letters, Jane urges Ray to be careful when he was in Alabama.
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.
Once Raymond was discharged from the military, the couple lived outside of New York City for a while before relocating to Nashville, archivists told WTVF.
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 and 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”
In this digital scan of an undated photo provided by The Nashville Public Library, William Raymond Whittaker, left, and his wife Jane Dean Whittaker stand for a photo in Nashville, Tenn. AP
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