“Mail is What They Want Most”: The WWII Letters of Edward A. Kennedy

After losing both his sons in combat during World War II, Edward Kennedy did something positive with his grief. He took a request from his employer, the Northwest Paper Company of Cloquet, Minnesota, to collect names and addresses of their employees in military service and turned it into a letter-writing mission.
Kennedy wrote newsy, upbeat four-page letters every two weeks from July 1943 to the end of the war: 57 letters in all. His letters talked about the weather, sports, hunting and fishing, and local events. Those receiving the letters wrote back with their news, which Kennedy then shared with the group. These letters served as a lifeline for men and women adapting to war-time assignments far from home. They weathered the war because they were connected to home and friends through Kennedy’s letters.

Today, Kennedy’s letters, shared in the book “So Long and Best of Luck”, provide us with a week-to-week glimpse of life in our area from 1943-45. The responses he received and summarized in his letters give an invaluable account of the war experiences of more than 300 men and women.