Throughout the war years of the 1940s there were enormous outpourings of correspondence from all parts of the United States to men and women in the service. Among these were local news columns written in the form of letters to soldiers. With a mission of sustaining morale as well as insuring that young Americans stationed far away were informed of local events, the -Dear Boys- column from the Mississippi Delta is a shining example of this genre.

Dear Boys collects memorable columns written by Mrs. Keith Frazier Somerville (1888-1978) for the newspaper of Bolivar County,...