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she continued in the letter to say she wanted to challenge others to invest the time and effort into attempting to contact friends of their youth.
he told them of course she did. but then he got to wondering what had happened to doris in the intervening years.
but when beckett received a christmas card decorated with "noel" and containing only cutler's name, "i knew it was over," he said. "we had a very nice friendship, but i'm not sorry it went the way it did. i'm happy the way it turned out."

after the war, beckett had gone into the insurance business and concurrently began an escorted tour business in cheltenham, which he continued until he was well into his 80s. the becketts had two sons and a daughter, eight grandchildren and a great-grandson.
"we talk every two or three months, sometimes close to an hour at a time," he said. "we have reams of stories."

beckett headed south to visit relatives and ended up at a family reunion and taking a girl he met at the reunion to a dance at the coronado hotel in st. louis. that girl, louise mathews, is now his wife of almost 65 years.
"she's quite a gal, and she's mine," beckett said. "the light of my life is right here, and nobody can take her place."

but as summer came to an end, beckett went back to complete his senior year at monmouth college in illinois and cutler went to syracuse university to begin her freshman year as an art student.
now that they're getting older — beckett will be 91 in january — their visits are becoming more infrequent, and four-way telephone calls are their main method of communication.
when he took her back to the nurse's tent, "she gave me a peck on the cheek," he said. "i didn't wash for two years."
not long after marrying, beckett, who now is retired as a captain in the army reserves, found in his footlocker the stack of letters he had kept from his romance with cutler and showed them to his wife.
in july 1945, beckett was transferred to an old b-17 air base in watertown, s.d., to start flight training of b-29s. but then the atomic bomb was dropped and the war was over.

he became a b-17 and b-24 pilot, flying on 285 combat missions against the japanese during their occupation of the atta and kiska islands off of alaska. beckett served with the 11th army air force under the command of gen. william o. butler.
"after the boys were bedded down, we male counselors took a flashlight and made our way through the dark valley and up the hill where we met the girl counselors for cookies and hot chocolate," beckett said.

when beckett was asked to deliver the body of a flight surgeon who died in training exercises to his hometown in illinois, he fortuitously decided to take a detour before heading back to base.

the becketts, who have lived at olde hickory village for the last 15 years,nfl store, visited the perrys' home, exchanged christmas cards and presents with the perrys. they even went to an elder hostel together in vermont. they learned that each of them had taken a life-story writing class, and they began exchanging manuscripts, along with their correspondence.
beckett contacted syracuse university alumni office to see if they had any knowledge of her whereabouts. they did, but wouldn't give out the information. instead, beckett wrote her a letter and sent it to the school, which forwarded it to her.
in one letter, doris said that because of their renewed correspondence, she had rediscovered the "fun of decorating envelopes with pertinent water color sketches. ... i now take this a step further by beginning a detailed and envelope-illustrated correspondence with faraway children and grandchildren."
beckett continued on with his plans to enter the army air forces after graduation.
knowing beckett thought the world of her, louise never gave the letters another thought — that is, not until 38 years later when their grandchildren found pictures of cutler as they were going through old photo albums. "they asked me who it was and if mom-mom knew about her," he said.
"we started up our correspondence again and became very friendly," beckett said. "doris and louise have a lot in common."

beckett even had a "date" with ingrid bergman.

after camp closed, beckett and cutler continued dating. beckett even went with cutler to her aunt's home in ocean city, n.j.

even though they were apart, they continued the romance, corresponding through letters. cutler even decorated her envelopes with cheery pictures depicting her activities.

"she came with the uso troop, and i was assigned her escort for the night," beckett said.
when doris wrote back, beckett learned that she had married stan perry, a man she met during her freshman year at syracuse. they lived in pittsford, n.y., because stan worked for eastman kodak and doris had become an art teacher and commercial artist. they had two boys and two girls.