History

It all began Saturday June 7th, 1942, on a curbside outside the Taft Hotel in New York City. Headed to Europe, a young, Jewish, Army 2nd Lieutenant, Roswell Joseph Weil vowed to his parents that he would write them a letter everyday until he safely arrived back home from the war, World War II. From June 1942 until his arrival home to New Orleans in December of 1945, as a Maj., Weil did just that.

Richard Lyons Weil, his son, uncovered the letters that his Grandfather Joseph H. Weil kept in a scrapbook, over 1200 individual letters. It is an amazing compilation of letters written by this southern gentleman and brilliant man. It also includes, telegrams, saved address labels from packages, stamps and descriptions of gift packages sent by Richard’s father. It also chronicles the meeting of Richard’s father and mother, English born Cicely Lyons and their marriage while stationed in Europe during World War II.