Lost love, from World War II

Like most good treasure, they were found in a box marked “X.”

Roughly 200 love letters from a soldier in World War II to his “darling sweetheart” now sit on the dining room table of Derrick Heckman, a math teacher at Wichita’s North High School.

Heckman was cleaning out a wood shed for a neighbor in Indian Hills just before Memorial Day when he saw the box with an old letter peeking out.

The neighbor thinks the box was left at the house on Womer Drive by the previous owner.

They believe that was the man who wrote the letters: 1st Lt. Philip “Turk” B. Ray to his wife, Margaret.

Now, Heckman wants to find their family to return the box.

But that could be difficult.

It doesn’t appear the Rays had any children. None are listed as survivors in their obituaries.

Margaret died in 1986 and Turk in 1993. Both are buried in Mission Chapel Mausoleum.

The Rays lived in Springfield, Ill., where the letters were addressed, and were married and in their late 20s when Turk went to war.

Heckman hasn’t read all of the letters, which Turk wrote in cursive that is difficult to read.

Somewhere in Belgium, Feb. 2, 1945:

“My Darling Sweetheart,

This was one of those days honey that the terrible mailman passed me up and I do not like it one bit ’cause I do want your letters so badly every day so I know how you are feeling and what you are doing.”

Signed “Your lover, Turk.”

“People don’t write like that anymore,” Heckman said. “It’s heartwarming in a way.”

“If someone had found all this information about my grandpa, I’d be ecstatic to find it and read it and it would just be truly a blessing to have these back in our family ... I want to get these letters back.”

Based on Heckman’s research, the couple moved to a house on Perry Street in Riverside after the war. They later moved to Womer Drive, where the box was discovered. Ray was a retired salesman for Foley Tractor Co.

He was a member of the 83rd Infantry Division, according to official papers found with the letters and photos in the box. Within the 83rd Division, Ray may have served under the 3rd Battalion of the 330th Infantry, according to other documents in the box.

The letters, photos and articles in the box detail his experience during his training in England and the 83rd Division’s deployment to Europe. The 83rd landed at Omaha Beach about two weeks after D-Day. They advanced through France and Luxembourg, fighting in the Battle of the Bulge, and eventually crossing into Germany. They returned to the United States in March 1946.

According to the 83rd Infantry Division Association, the division suffered 15,248 combat casualties. “Of the 68 divisions the U.S. Army deployed in Europe, the 83rd was ninth in the number of combat deaths with a total of 3,620 GIs Killed In Action while fighting with the Division.”

One letter in the box from Major General Robert C. Macon to the troops, dated May 10, 1945, gives the details of V-E Day two days before.

This story was originally published June 7, 2016 at 6:59 PM with the headline "Lost love, from World War II."