TYLER, Texas—Randa Sue Sims Dumas expected the letters from World War II soldiers to be found in a wooden trunk rather than a cabinet.

And she couldn’t help but notice how much the house reminded her of the Arkansas house she grew up in, because the two are about the same age and have similar decor and architecture.

Dumas was just one of five family members of Pfc. Ralph D. Sims Jr., who toured The Fitzgerald House recently.

Her brother spent time in the house—now a museum at 815 S. Broadway Ave.—when he was at Camp Fannin, a military training center north of Tyler, during World War II.

In 1944, Sims was killed in France and buried there.

Dumas has visited his grave there and her daughter Annette said her sons have said they would take their own children one day.

“We just wanted to be here (in) the same place he was and to learn more about him from pictures and letters and books,” said Dumas, who flew from St. Louis to Tyler with Annette. “What a beautiful spirit he had. (He was) quite an outstanding young man.”

For her sister, Maribel Sims McKinney, who drove to Tyler from Louisiana with her husband and daughter, “it was a way ... for him to be part of me again.”

Dumas said her nephew got on the Internet one day to research Sims and found out about The Fitzgerald House and then the family scheduled a tour.

“I think it’s just extremely personal for them,” said Kim Groff, a family friend of the current house owners, Robert and Becky Wangner. “They’re coming because of their family history. ... If we can take them on this journey, then that’s what we wanted to do.”

Groff said when she visited Tyler in 2002, Mrs. Wangner showed her items she found in the house such as pictures and letters written during World War II.

The Wangners “didn’t know all that was in (the house) when they bought it,” she said. “They could not make themselves get rid of all this stuff because it was such history.”

Groff said among the discoveries were letters between military personnel, including Sims, and Lois F. Whiteman, who lived in the house from 1901 to 1921 and then again from 1932 until her death in 1988.

During World War II, she said Whiteman would send packages to military personnel, invite Camp Fannin soldiers to the house for dinner or an overnight stay and would even put up a soldier’s family at the house if they were visiting Tyler.

“She sent them things overseas,” Groff said. “She really didn’t know a lot of them that long face-to-face.”

She said the soldiers were usually at Camp Fannin to train and then may have gone to Europe or the Pacific.

She said letters from about 100 soldiers have been identified, and it took her about two years to transcribe them.

One of the letters Sims wrote, dated Dec. 20, 1943, to Whiteman reads:

“Dear Mrs. Whiteman, You will never know how much I enjoyed the poems that you sent. You see I’m somewhat of a sentimentalist, and they were so close to my very thoughts. Even in my short 21 years, I have learned the truth of the statement, ’That disappointment often hides a richer gift than we had prayed for.’ Especially has this been true in this last year. I have been accepted as an Aeration Cadet by the Army Air Corps, so who can tell”

According to a compilation of letters edited by Groff, called “Mrs. Whiteman’s Boys,” Whiteman wrote in November 1944, “It has been my aim not only to give you good times while you were with me, but also to give you some happy memories to take with you to the foxholes, or wherever your lot may be”

McKinney said it was nice to see what her mother wrote to Whiteman because it gave a good idea of the kind of grief her mother went through after Sims’ death.

Our brother “was an inspiration to us,” she said. “He was a very outstanding leader.”

McKinney’s daughter and Sims’ niece Challys Williams also weighed in with her thoughts, calling Sims “very wise” and mentioning the way he expressed himself spiritually.

“It’s a heartwarming story for the holidays,” Groff said of the family’s visit. “(It’s) honoring the soldier who put his life on the line for us.”



If you go: Linda Miller, curator of The Fitzgerald House, said the museum does tours by appointment and people can call 903-571-0395 to schedule one.