OLD TILLAMOOK TIMES: “Dear Folks” Series #6

EDITOR’S NOTE: For the next few weeks, we will be sharing entries from Old Tillamook Times, provided by Sandi Burgess Botten Dean, featuring Karen Kranweiss Nudelman’s blog in which she describes the search and book writing that started a little over 10 years ago when she first received “the letters” and began reading. Then came the idea for a story, then a book – “Dear Folks” tells a young man’s story through letters he wrote home to his parents in Tillamook, Oregon. Links to the introduction to the story and the series are below.

By Karen Krantweiss Nudelman

There is not one single piece of evidence that can be found which will tell you about a person’s life. Their true story emerges when you bring together all the elements of life that defined them. One way to gain insight into their choices and motivations is to learn about someone truly dear to them. We were intrigued by Chuck’s first love and the place she had in his heart. We traveled a great distance to deepen our knowledge about Chuck Hunter. This past November, we arrived in his hometown of Tillamook, Oregon full of questions and hoping to leave with some answers.

Chuck mentioned Joyce’s name in numerous letters to his parents. In this one, he compares her to his current girlfriend.

“Chuck’s high school girlfriend… Joyce? Do you know who Joyce was?”

Our new friend David Blum, Tillamook High School Class of 1942 classmate of Chuck Hunter answered our first, and most important question with an absolute definitiveness that comes with living 89 years:

“Joyce Higgins.”

We yelped. And then we shrieked. We may have rattled our hosts a bit with our enthusiastic response. We barely registered the look of surprise and delight on David’s face.

After months of tirelessly searching online for the last name of the object of Chuck’s affection, joyful laughter turned quickly into tremendous relief. We found her. The woman Chuck said, “no one could measure up to” was Joyce Higgins.

For months, Kim and I felt fairly certain the “Joyce” he referred to in countless letters was in fact, a classmate whose yearbook portrait seemed to emit a charm and warmth that black and white pictures rarely convey. But Chuck never once wrote her last name. There was absolutely no need to identify her further in the letters to his parents, because they knew that there was only one “Joyce.”

It was on that Sunday morning in November, while sitting at the kitchen table in the home of Mr. Blum and his daughter Evajean, just a few short miles from the Hunter Farm, I felt a deep sense of peace. Although we spent a year working with historians and librarians, digging deeper into dusty, incorrect or damaged records, this was our most significant moment of discovery.

Chuck never returned to Tillamook. After his fatal airplane accident in September 1945, his remains were buried in Japan and remained there until 1949. He was finally laid to rest at Golden Gate National Cemetery in California. But just for those short two hours, while we sat with his childhood friend, Chuck was home again.

David, a retired pastor, felt immediately at ease with sharing his memories of the days he double dated with Joyce and Chuck. “I was madly in love with Margaret Moulton, who happened to be Joyce’s dearest friend.” With those words, I sat up straight in my chair and leaned in closer, careful not to spill the coffee in front of me. Even though I was recording our conversation, I consumed every detail he shared. Here we were trying to create a legacy for Chuck, and we were sitting with probably the only person left in Tillamook – perhaps in the state of Oregon – who could tell us about Chuck’s life.

David noticed my tears before did and paused his story to pass me the tissue box. Grateful for the tissue, I dabbed my wet eyes and said to him quietly, “You know, Chuck never got over Joyce.”

Not at all surprised, David nodded his head and said, “Well, Joyce was a jewel.”

A few hours later, we found ourselves in the archival room within the Tillamook County Pioneer Museum. A mountain of boxes labelled with Chuck’s name or with the name of his parents and sister awaited us. In all, we had 1,200 artifacts to scan for any details that would support the story we were writing. We each donned a pair of white cotton gloves and dove right in.

It wasn’t until we reached the final folder in the very last box labelled “Misc.” where we found a clue relating to Joyce. It was an old address book kept by Chuck’s mother, Alice Hunter. The very last page had this entry:

We almost missed this important find. After four hours of research, we were hungry and tired, but we pressed on because…”what if?” I’m so glad we looked.

No wonder our internet searches for “Joyce Higgins” turned up very little. By 1946, she was known as Joyce Zahler. And with that, the flood gates were open. Mrs. Joyce Zahler married for a second time in 1974 to a Mr. Charles Lane.

One quick email exchange later and I was on the phone with Joyce’s stepdaughter, Melody. She told me that the name “Chuck Hunter” felt very familiar to her, but she needed to call Joyce’s daughter Karen for the full story. Karen knew the minute Melody spoke his name who he was to her mother. She said, “Yes. Chuck was the man mom would have married if he survived the war.”

If only.

Here are links to the previous stories about Karen’s journey to document Chuck Hunter’s life: