IN THEIR OWN WORDS - YVONNE LOVE

Seventy years ago, on 14 August 1945, the Japanese surrendered--VJ Day--ending WWII in the Pacific.  Yvonne and Vince had taken the train from Madison, WI, after their marriage in April, to California. Yvonne wrote this letter to Grandma-the-Great.


August 16, 1945

Dear Mom,

Well, it's finally over.  I was making dinner when it was announced over the radio. No one else was home - so there was no shouting, all I did was sit down and cry.  Vince had duty that night so when he didn't come home I didn't expect to see him until the next night.  But I went down town yesterday morning and when I was mailing some letters, I saw him standing on the corner waiting for a bus.  Everything was closed up so we came home. After Vince ate he went to bed, as he had been up most of the night. We had an early dinner last night and went to a movie.  There were only 3 or 4 restaurants open and there were lines of people waiting to get into every one. The streets are a mess of paper.  There were piles and piles of milk cartons - guess that was about all people could get for food.

Vince is supposed to have 3 nights off and one on, but it was just announced that all sailors are to return to their ships or base (within 100 miles from Frisco). I guess there was really lots of damage done there - thousands and thousands of dollars worth of goods stolen or destroyed.  The paper said every window within a three block area was broken.  I didn't get to see any celebrations at all but there were lots of accidents so maybe it was just as well.

I sure hope they don't keep Vince in for three or four days. I had a telephone number I was going to give him so he could call if anything like this happened, but I forgot about it this morn before he left, so know I just have to wait until he comes home.

He said his ship is going to be finished so he'll probably ship out in a few months.  I'm sending my ticket home, so you can get the refund.  All you have to do is take it to the station, I believe. If you need anything in my writing to say it's OK - This letter should be enough.  You can send the money with my next allotment check.

Well that's about all that's new for now.  We didn't have any mail delivery yesterday or today so I should have a letter by tomorrow.

Love,
Yvonne

Dad did not ship out. He was discharged a few weeks after this letter was written.

July 4, 1862

On this day in 1862, Emory Franklin Love was born to James H. Love and Elizabeth (Bettie) C. Foster. He was known as Jefferson or Jeff ever after because, family lore says, that same day Jefferson Davis, President of the Confederacy, rode through the area (most likely on a visit to his home in Fairview, KY). No proof has yet been found that Davis was in the area, but it seems a reasonable explanation for the name.  Apparently none of our direct ancestors participated in the Civil War and, Kentucky being a border state, they might have chosen either side. Was giving Emory this name an indication of family sentiment or a bit of wry humor that, once spoken, stuck?

Jeff was the eldest surving son in a family of eleven children. Five of his brothers and sisters survived to adulthood: Mary Ann (Mollie), Nora Belle, Laura Susan, Harvey E. (Ed), and John (Foster). They were all most likely born in the Ford's Ferry area of Western Kentucky where James H. and Bettie had a farm on Crooked Creek and were members of the Dunn Springs Church.       

E. F. married Emily A.(Angeline) Wofford on December 11, 1883, in Crittenden County, KY. The Wofford family had land adjacent to the Love property so they likely knew each other from childhood. They were both tall, with sharp features, a striking couple.

Jeff and Angie were the parents of nine children. Seven reached adulthood:  Leslie Coin, William Earnest (Earnest), Elizabeth Morgan (Bessie), Raymond, Thomas Edwin (Ed), James Allen (Allie) and Lena Estelle. All the children were born at Fords Ferry and the family moved to Missouri about 1904.

Jeff and Angie continued farming in the Bootheel of Missouri clearing cypress groves to raise cotton with the help of their children and grandchildren. Many family gatherings took place on the Fourth of July to celebrate Jeff's birthday and America's independence.

"Grandpa Emory Love
July 4, 1951
89 years old this day"

Emory Franklin "Jefferson" died on September 28, 1952 at age 90 and is buried in Park Cemetery, Malden, Dunklin County, MO.

APRIL 18, 1945

Seventy years ago on a spring day in Madison, WI, Yvonne Carolyn Cairns and Petty Officer Second Class Vincent O. Love got hitched! 

Wisconsin State Journal
18 April 1945
page 8

They met by chance at a party celebrating the birthday of one of her classmates...she was still in high school. He, sent to Madison by the Navy for radio training, was invited by one of his classmates and later stated he never would have gone if he had known it was a dance! But, dance or no, he met "the prettiest woman he had ever seen" (who for him, 69 years later, she still was).

Like other couples engaged in long-distance romances during World War II, they sent letters and photos and hoped for a safe return home so they could start their lives together.  Looking through the photos from those years, gosh, they were young and innocent.  She was barely out of high school, he was a farmboy from the Bootheel of Missouri scratching out foxholes in the coral rock of Peleliu and Bouganville in the South Pacific. But when you look at the photos, you see such joy and love and sweetness.

Happy Anniversary, Mom and Dad.