With Love from Savannah: W. W. Law in Service during World War II
The City of Savannah Municipal Archives recently digitized the entirety of Westley Wallace “W. W.” Law’s personal correspondence from 1943 to 1952. The majority of these letters were written by his mother, Geneva Wallace Law, to Law while he was in military service during World War II. Other correspondents include fellow servicemen training and working at various military bases across the United States, his sisters, and other friends from Savannah and beyond.
Photograph of Law and his coworkers at work in MacDill Field, Tampa, Florida, 1944.
Identified as 1 is W. W. Law, 2 is Homer Phillips, 3 is Russell Newman, 4 is Frank Collins, 5 is Charles Graham, and 6 is Augustus (no last name given).
W. W. Law Photograph Collection, Item 1121-100_1208. City of Savannah Municipal Archives.
W. W. Law enlisted in the United States Army in March 1943. Law’s military career took him from various airfields and bases across the Southeast. He trained in the Army Administration School at Atlanta University, Georgia, then was stationed at MacDill Field, Florida, as the Chief Clerk of the Publication Section of the Engineer Aviation Unit Training Center (EAUTC), then on to the Gulfport Army Airfield, Mississippi, and finally Coffeyville, Kansas. He reached the rank of Staff Seargent. The course of his military career is detailed in these letters, including his furlough visits home, attached photographs of his office work, and much more.
A four-leaf clover found attached to letter from Geneva Law on May 16, 1943.
W. W. Law Personal Papers Box 1121-112-1, Folder 4. City of Savannah Municipal Archives.
In the numerous letters from Geneva Law, she discusses rations, planting victory gardens for the war effort, and raising the American flag on important holidays (such as Flag Day, Veterans Day, and the Fourth of July). She also keeps Law up to date on all Savannah news, such as First Bryan Baptist Church activities, recent deaths, weather, and more. Geneva Law also attached several items to letters including newspaper clippings, event programs, a photograph of herself, holiday cards, and one lucky item. On May 16, 1943, Geneva Law sent W. W. Law a four-leaf clover stating that she originally meant to send it earlier and realized she had dropped it on the floor. In her May 12, 1943 letter Geneva wrote, “I am sending you a 4 leaf clover, they say they are lucky.”
Collage of letterheads of military bases across the United States, found in correspondence
from W. W. Law Personal Papers, Box 1121-112-0001. City of Savannah Municipal Archives.
These letters not only offer insight into life in Savannah during World War II but the life of many African American servicemen across the country and world. Letters from the various bases, forts, and airfields across the United States came from California, Mississippi, Illinois, Florida, Texas, Wyoming, Kansas, Georgia, Washington, Idaho, Tennessee, Virginia, Alabama, North Carolina, and Pennsylvania. The servicemen discuss their training, who has been shipped to other bases and deployed overseas, and what life is like working in the military.
W. W. Law was honorably discharged from the United States Army on February 13, 1946, at Camp Shelby, Mississippi. He returned home and exchanged correspondence from 1946 to 1952 with friends across the states, discussing his experience at college and his work with the Young Men’s Christian Association (YMCA) and the local American Legion Post 500.
Discover more about life in Savannah and across the United States during World War II by researching in the extensive W. W. Law Collections. The letters can be read in their entirety by clicking the links embedded in the Record Series 1121-112, W. W. Law Personal Papers Finding Aid.
Special thanks to our volunteer Wilma Wheten who assisted the Archives in digitizing these historic documents.