Dick Heidgerd Jr. mailed romantic letters to his sweetheart Margaret for three years during World War II, postmarked from battlefronts stretching from Morocco to France. She waited 34 months for him to come home. When he finally did, in September 1945, they married within a week.
The story, reported by the News & Observer, came to light only recently, after their son, Dick Heidgerd, discovered his parents' wartime correspondence four months ago. What he found filled in gaps about a father he knew mostly as quiet and unassuming — a man who had received a Silver Star.
Heidgerd Jr. and Margaret Ozburn met on a blind date, and according to the family's account, Margaret stuck it out through all 17 innings of a baseball game that day. The two hit it off fast and planned to marry soon after meeting. But U.S. Army orders forced the couple to cancel their planned wedding, and Heidgerd Jr. sent Margaret a telegram telling her the Army was upending their plans.
From New York Athlete to Cavalry Reservist
Heidgerd Jr. grew up in New York, where he played college football and lacrosse before joining an Army reserve cavalry division a year before World War II began. He went on to serve as a captain in the Second Armored Division, which moved through North Africa and Sicily before the fighting pushed into Europe.
He arrived in Normandy three days after D-Day and fought across France and Belgium, directing artillery fire and air strikes from the front lines. His son later learned that his father had fought at the Battle of the Bulge — one more detail that emerged only through the letters, since Heidgerd Jr. rarely spoke of his service.
For his actions under heavy fire, Heidgerd Jr. received both the Bronze Star and the Silver Star. “My mother waited for him, didn’t she?” his son said, a line that carries weight given the 34 months Margaret spent apart from him while he fought overseas.
Letters That Kept a Romance Alive
Even from the front, Heidgerd Jr. found ways to keep the romance going. He sent Margaret a Christmas card while fighting in Europe, and his final letter home was postmarked from Camp Lucky Strike, the staging ground many American troops passed through before shipping back to the United States.
Back home, Margaret worked as a schoolteacher and later held a government job while she waited. She also became the keeper of the couple's story, saving ticket stubs and other mementos from their life together — including souvenirs from their honeymoon, when they saw Brigadoon on Broadway and caught a World Series game in Detroit.
Heidgerd Jr. and Margaret married within a week of his return home in September 1945 and stayed married for 46 years, according to their son's account. “He was a quiet, unassuming man,” Heidgerd said of his father, a description that stands in contrast to the medals and battlefield record the letters helped bring into focus.
Not the Only Wartime Letters Resurfacing
Stories like the Heidgerds' are not unique. The Bureau County History Center in Illinois says it holds a collection of 171 letters written by 142 different people during World War II, from local servicemen and women to the Mothers of World War No. 2 chapter; the individuals represented are believed to be primarily from Princeton. “We have 171 letters written by 142 different people. We believe these individuals are primarily from Princeton,” the history center says of its archive — a reminder that wartime correspondence like the Heidgerds' has turned up in attics and family collections across the country, decades after it was written.
