In October 1947, James McLean, a freshman at the University of Maine, began writing letters to a girl back in his hometown of Rumford, Maine. Thelma McKinney was a senior and a cheerleader at Rumford High School where Jim had graduated the year before. While they may have passed each other in the halls there, they only became acquainted later through Jim’s college roommate. Smitten, Jim began writing Thelma regularly. Over the next eight months, he wrote her 54 letters.
Jim’s first letter was short, a little clumsy. ”I’m going to write a letter for only two reasons. 1) Because I have nothing better to do, and 2) to let you know that I still am going to give you my picture.” But by the final letter, things were serious between the two 19-year-olds. ”Don’t tell anybody but I love you an awful lot.”
On July 12, 1952, four years after that final letter, they married. They spent their lives together and raised five children – Steven, Kathy, Susan, Bruce and Chris. At the time of Thelma’s death in November, 2010, they’d been married 58 years. Jim passed seven years later.
While the couple’s five children knew the basic story of their parents’ beginnings, they were unaware that their mother had kept those letters. At some point, she tied them together with a piece of string and tucked them away in a drawer. There they sat until 2019 when Chris and his wife Lisa discovered them while going through the last of the couple’s belongings.
On a recent vacation, Sue, Bruce and Chris read a few of the letters out loud. But that barely scratched the surface. It was agreed that something needed to be done with the letters – some kind of lasting testament – so that they could be easily shared among the extended family – their children, grandchildren, great grandchildren, and beyond. This site is that testament.
So if you’re family, or if you’re somebody who either heard about this site or stumbled onto it, thanks for visiting. Letters will continue to be posted in order until all of them are added. And please leave comments!
Oh, and if you’re wondering, Thelma did write back. But did Jim save those letters? Of course he didn’t. Mom was the romantic. Dad, not so much.
— Bruce McLean, August 2023.
