A Guide to the Frank Patterson Hunter Jr. Letters, 1934 #51097

Library of Virginia

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Preferred Citation

Frank Patterson Hunter Jr. Letters, January-August 1934. Accession 51097. Personal papers collection, The Library of Virginia, Richmond, Virginia.

Acquisition Information

Gift of Sarah Gayle Randolph, Irvington, Virginia, 18 November 2013.

Frank Patterson Hunter Jr. was born on 21 February 1908, the son of Frank Patterson Hunter and Cora Wilcox Gayler Hunter of Portsmouth, Virginia. He attended St. John's College in Annapolis, Maryland, before entering West Point in 1929, graduating with the Class of 1933. He entered the Army Air Corps, earning his wings in October 1934. Hunter completed foreign service in the Panama Canal Zone, then put in stateside service at Fort Bragg, North Carolina, before being called overseas during World War II. On 23 January 1945, while leading the 398th Heavy Bombardment Group into action over the Rhine River town of Neuss, his B-17 sustained a direct hit. Hunter and all but one of his crewmen were killed. He left a widow, Maria Greenough Burgwyn Long (whom he married in December 1934), and their two daughters, Maria Burgwyn and Sarah Gayle. Hunter was the recipient of the Distinguished Flying Cross, with Oak Leaf and Crois de Guerre with Palm.

Information taken from a biographical article written about Hunter by his friend, William J. Humphreys (1905-1991).

Scope and Content

Letters, January-August 1934, from Frank Patterson Hunter Jr. (1908-1945), to his friend William J. Humphreys (1905-1991) of Baltimore, Maryland. Writing first from Randolph Field, Texas, and then Kelly Field, Texas, where he was completing Army Air Corps training, Hunter describes his life as a trainee and discusses the pride and exhilaration he felt as a pilot; hints at a desire to be a writer; offers thoughts on marriage; and speculates on what his next step will be after earning his wings. Also includes two letters, 1984 and 1987, to Sarah Gayle Hunter Randolph, Frank Hunter's daughter, one each from Will Humphreys and his sister, Julia "Boots" Humphreys Wachter (1908-1991).