Alvin Gauthier was going about is workday as a postal carrier in Grand Prairie, Texas, when he stumbled upon something unusual in his parcel hamper: a Christmas card sent in 1944.
Gauthier sifted through the hamper and found several other loose letters written in 1942 and 1944, all of which were signed by Marion Lamb. There was also a tattered envelope postmarked 1942, and addressed to "Mr. & Mrs. Harvey Lamb, Jacksonville, Arkansas." It was stamped "U.S. Army Postal Service."
As a Marine Corps veteran, Gauthier felt a personal connection to the wartime letters. He know they would probably mean a lot to the writer's relatives. "I had to find the family," Gauthier said.
He searched online and found Marion Lamb's obituary from 2010. Reaching out to a local news station in Arkansas, they ran the story. Soon Gauthier was in touch with JoAnn Smith, Marion's sister. "I was shocked," said Smith, 84, the only one alive of her six siblings. Marion was the eldest and had no children; he had served in the military from 1941-1945.
To shorten the story (it was a lovely long newspaper article), JoAnn Smith's nephew had the letters in his possession for decades and in mid-April had mailed a large package of family artifacts to his cousin, Debbie Smith (daughter of JoAnn Smith). The package that landed in Alvin Gauthier's mail hamper hadn't been properly sealed and many of the letters had spilled out. "Of course that's what happened!" said Debbie Smith.
To end this tale, Gauthier made the 5-hour drive from Grand Prairie, Texas, to Jacksonville, Arkansas, to meet the Smiths and hand deliver the precious letters. It was a very emotional meetings; they all shed tears as they hugged.
If you wish to read the story in its entirety, just Google the particulars. Don't we all just love a warm-fuzzy genealogy story????
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