The papers contain primarily correspondence between Richard G. Mater and his fiancée Katherine Nitz when he served in the U.S. Army from 1941 to 1945. There are a small number of letters written by friends and family from 1946 to 1950, once the couple married and had their first child. There is also a baby book for the Mater’s oldest child, Ronald, with entries from 1949 to 1953. Significant gaps in the letters occurs in April 1944 and from 1951 to 1953, with smaller gaps during Rich’s furloughs: 22 Oct–12 Nov 1941, 1-12 Apr 1942, 1-12 May 1942, 11-19 Nov 1942, 1-15 July 1943, and 8-16 Dec 1943. The papers are arranged in chronological order. From June 1941 to January 1946, Richard (Rich) Mater corresponded with his fiancée Katherine (Kay) Nitz. The couple decided early in the war to save their correspondence to share some day with their children (28 Dec 1941). Kay numbered the envelopes of the letters she kept safe; she received 408 and he received 364. Rich sent his last box of her letters home from Fort Bragg for her to save in early February 1944. He explained that he could not save her letters after he deployed and not wanting anyone to read them, he planned to burn them (2, 7 Feb 1944). There are no letters from Kay for the periods of August to November 1943, while Rich was on desert maneuvers, and from February 1944 through 1945. While Rich and Kay professed their love to each other often, their letters documented the work they were doing, the leisure activities in which they participated, news of family and friends, and hopes for the future. Rich signed his letters to Kay with is nickname from home, “Rich,” but after a year or so, he began to sign his letters, “Dick.” Rich and Kay both enjoyed taking photographs and they discussed an album that Kay kept. Photos enclosed with letters were removed, presumably to Kay’s book, and are not included with the collection. Rich and Kay discussed getting married on more than one occasion during the war. In the summer of 1941, they expected Rich to be in the Army for only one year. By the time Rich returned from combat in 1945, the couple had not seen one another for two years. The letters and envelopes are physically interesting. Rich used a variety of stationery from the USO, Red Cross, and the camps where he was stationed. He and Kay both wrote “S.W.A.K.” (Sealed With A Kiss) on many of the envelopes. Kay ended a few letters and sealed envelopes with a lipstick print (27 June 1941, 3 and 10 Jan 1943, 25 Feb 1943, 16 Jan 1944). She also used stationery with Scottish Terriers, like President Roosevelt’s dog Fala (e.g. 16 Jan 1944). Kay’s most entertaining stationery included full size illustrated envelopes with humorous G.I. cartoons (beginning Nov. 1942). Since Rich was stationed at Fort Leonard Wood for long periods of time, he often got weekend passes to come to St. Louis. Many of his letters with Kay plan their activities for the weekend and summarize their activities. They went out with friends, visited family, and went to area beaches. As an engaged couple who had been dating for a few years, Rich and Kay indulged in premarital sex. Letters often included innuendoes and a few references to birth control (28 June 1943). On Mondays or Tuesdays following a weekend pass, Rich described his return trip to Fort Leonard Wood either by train, bus, or car. Rich’s letters from 1941 to 1944, before he deployed to Europe, described Army life, his duties and training, his living conditions, and the places he visited on maneuvers in Arkansas, Louisiana, Kentucky, Tennessee, Arizona, Oklahoma, North Carolina, and California. In Louisiana, Rich and fellow soldiers dove into a pond to cool off after a long day only to find it had been treated for mosquitoes with crude oil (25 Sept 1941). He was impressed with Fort Sill, telling Kay it was like a city (22 Jan 1943). Rich noted that all the soldiers at Fort Bragg carried side arms at all times since they were in the east coast defense area (3 Dec 1943). Before aircraft mechanic training, Rich was the supply sergeant for Company E, 1st Infantry, 6th Division. He told Kay about the supply trucks being bombed with sacks of flour on maneuvers in Louisiana (17 Sept 1941). After he became an aircraft mechanic, Rich took the reconnaissance planes apart and put them back together for transport by train when the 182nd Field Artillery Group moved from Fort Leonard Wood to California and again when they moved from California to Fort Bragg. He also told Kay about drilling under live machine gun fire at Fort Bragg (27 Dec 1943). When Rich wrote letters from France, Luxembourg, and Germany, he was in the midst of the Allied offensive, living in fox holes and wanted “to go to bed one night with the sound feeling that [he] knew that [he’d] wake up in the morning” (7 Dec 1944). He recognized that he had combat fatigue and that readjusting to civilian life would be difficult. The battlefield changed Rich’s views on religion. Kay wanted a large wedding in the Catholic church, but Rich was not Catholic. He had taken instruction from priests in the military but once he was in combat, he told Kay he would not be tied to a religion, “my kids are going to be honest to goodness real American kids with all rights and freedoms of religion and speech that’s why I’m setting in this hedgerow cheating the devil every day.” (23 Sept 1944). On April 14, 1945, his unit observed five minutes of silence after getting news of President Roosevelt’s death, “We will fight all the more to show our gratitude for such a man.” The effects of combat continued once Rich returned to St. Louis. In his November 16th letter, he told Kay that he had to “get rid of the shakes” before he started his job (16 Nov 1945). In his final letter to Kay in January 1946, he apologizes for a scene he made with his brother out of jealousy and asks if she still wants to marry him in June. Kay and Rich both mentioned friends, but they usually referred to them with only first names or nicknames. Kay mentioned her cousin Pete Mircsov and Alfred Russel Prewitt. Rich reported getting letters from, or getting news about, Carl Debrecht, Bob Shelton, Roland Merckel, and Bob Donaldson. Rich mentioned the Nieman family (Al, Ted) in several letters explaining that he and his brother were close to them. Betty Nieman wrote to him often with news of her family. Rich was especially close to Charlie Nieman and his wife, Alma. In his Feb 5, 1945, letter, Rich told Kay that Charlie had been killed in Belgium on January 2, 1945. Letters written by Kay are more difficult to read than those written by Rich. Kay did not use punctuation, or paragraphs, and she misspelled several words, but she did so consistently. She told Rich all about her daily activities, news of family and friends, local news, and her jobs and public transportation. Kay belonged to a roller-skating club, she saw movies, and enjoyed going out with friends. While a single letter from Kay might give a small amount of information her daily life, the sheer quantity of her letters provides a rich amount of data about the home front in St. Louis. Kay’s letters also illustrate how much independence women gained during the war, both in occupation and in economic circumstances. When she became bored or uninterested in her current job, she mentioned ads in the newspaper looking for women interested in learning to fly (30 Oct 1941). When Rich was stationed away from Missouri, Kay wrote about joining the military and even sent for an application (March 1943). By the end of June 1944, she had moved to Portland, Oregon, to work at the Swan Island shipyard. Unfortunately, Rich was in combat zones and destroyed Kay’s letters from Portland. Her activities can only be inferred from his replies. Over time, strains on their relationship emerged as Kay enjoyed her new-found freedom while Rich, who was sometimes jealous before his deployment, was embroiled in intense training and combat situations. From 1941 to 1945, Kay held at least seven jobs. In June 1941, Kay worked at a laundry but one month later she obtained a sewing job at the Angelica Jacket Company. By April 1942, the company had a government contract and she joined a union, the first of at least two unions Kay joined in St. Louis. The fluidity of industrial work is evident by how quickly Kay changed and secured new positions during the war. Between December 1942 and January 1944, she gave sporadic detailed descriptions of her jobs, co-coworkers, pay rates and bonuses, union dues and meetings, factory schedules, and transportation issues she encountered while working night shifts (examples include: 29 Dec 1942-4 March 1943, 28-29 May 1943, 19 July 1943, 2 Dec 1943, 23 Jan 1944). Kay and a friend got jobs at the American Stove Company in December 1942, which had several military contracts throughout the war, and went downtown to buy “girl blue jeans” and flannel shirts (29 Dec 1942). At first, Kay made auxiliary fuel tanks for airplanes and by May 1943, she assembled and inspected bombs. In July 1943, American Stove let her go after she took time off during one of Rich’s two-week furloughs (17 July 1943). Kay quickly secured another job as a welder at the Laister-Kauffman Aircraft Corporation, which assembled gliders in the Arena, and later at the St. Louis Aircraft Company (2 Dec 1943). Finances were a common topic of discussion for the couple. They told one another how much they were paid and discussed saving for marriage. Kay complained about her income taxes, which in the 1940s were due in payments the following year. Rich sent money home so his father could pay his income tax for him. Kay purchased clothing, shoes, items for her hope chest, and many other things. She often complained of being “broke” and despite a warning from Rich, Kay did not have enough money to return to St. Louis from Portland when Rich came home from Europe in 1945. Kay described local events such as parades, a bus accident near her home on Christmas Eve 1941 and a fire at the St. Louis Cordage Mills warehouse where her father worked (15 Sept 1941). She mentioned on only one or two occasions when St. Louis had blackouts (25 Nov 1942, 26 Feb 1943). In February 1943, Kay mentioned a meat shortage and shoe rationing. Gas rationing came up often when she got rides from home from co-workers and when her brother, Jake, came home on leave (18 May 1943). Several letters after the war were written by friends Kay met in Portland. Ann Pressly wrote from Sacramento about her husband and young son. Adeline Haw told Kay about recent staff changes at the Waverly Country Club; possibly Kay had worked there. In 1947, Kenneth J. Berens wrote about his work as the head of the welding department with crews rebuilding Okinawa. Rich and Kay both wrote about Rich’s aunt during the war, Ann, with whom they both corresponded. They visited her family in Chicago during one of Rich’s furloughs. Ann’s son, Oscar (Butch) Smith, was also in the military and was often mentioned in Rich and Kay’s letters. The only letters from Ann date after the war. Rich’s brother, Oscar, joined the Marines after the war and the couple saved four of his letters from 1949 to 1950, two of which are illustrated with humorous drawings (11 Feb, 2 March 1950).