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Donna Kline
Adeline (Mrs. Joseph P.) Macomber-Smith
Mr. Phillip Pargeter
Dear Mr. Pargeter, I am writing to thank you for forwarding to me the letter from my son, Cpl. Joseph P. Macomber-Smith, Jr., USMC, and to confirm for you that it was indeed from him. I cannot tell you how much it meant to me to receive that letter. My niece, Adele, had to read it to me because my eyes are not so good anymore, and as you know, the ink was very faded. I have not cried so much since Joe Senior passed away in 1974. Perhaps you might have some interest in the circumstances. I suppose that many people would be angry to find out that a letter had been lying around some dusty post office for more than 15 years. So many people criticize the Post Office, and stamps are very expensive now. For me, however, the delay was a blessing in disguise. I do not know if it was in the Houston papers, but we had a bad brush fire here in East Peach at the beginning of the summer, when the drought was so bad. Joe Senior and I ranched here for over 40 years, both of us having been raised here in Dumas County, and the fire spread to our house before the firemen could contain it because the first cutting of hay was still in the field and was very dry. I was in town visiting my niece and her husband at the time, and people said I was lucky not to be out there all by myself. But, Mr. Pargeter, you will think that I am just a foolish old woman, but I think I minded losing my scrapbooks more than I minded losing the house or the furniture. I had all of Joe Junior’s high school yearbooks and clippings from the East Peach Courier when he got his Eagle Scout and All State in track and things like that. I had kept all his letters home too, from when he went into the Marine Corps, just like I kept his father’s letters from WW II. Joe Junior wrote to me almost every week, from Parris Island and San Diego and Hawaii when he was on R and R. I’m sure you couldn’t know this, but Joe Junior never came home from Viet Nam. He was killed at the place that they call Hamburger Hill. So you see, the letter that you sent me is the only one that I can have now from my Joe. I do not know how you could possibly have found me after so many years since the envelope had been almost destroyed and the bottom half of the page with my boy’s signature had been ripped off. I’m sure it must have been a great deal of trouble and work for you, and I wanted you to know that I appreciated it very much. If you are ever up here in our part of Texas, I’d like to thank you personally.
Yours truly,
cc. Congressman John Wingham and Howard S. Margolis, Postmaster,
Houston, TX
MEMORANDUM TO: Hon. John Wingham
Attached is a letter from Mrs. Adeline Macomber-Smith,
which has considerable human interest potential. Shall I send the usual
reply or do you want to do something with this?
MEMORANDUM
TO: Doris
Gives new meaning to the term “dead letter.” Please get me the scoop on this guy Pargeter and write a letter for me to the old lady re: many good workers at postal service, problem is bloated Democratic bureaucracy. Usual stuff. Also, if Pargeter is OK, letter to Pargeter and local postmaster re: pat on back. Is East Peach on my itinerary for the speech tour in October? If no, talk to County Chairman re: visit there, photo with Mrs. Adeline, etc. Check was son decorated? If not, find out from Pentagon if too late now. Also what is status of drought relief program
for Dumas County? Cattlemen’s Association raising hell.
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