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Clifford Brooks Shirley collection, 1943-1948, Date accessioned: 2019-10-14

 

Summary

Creator:
Shirley, Clifford Brooks, 1920-1994
Ballew, Glenn
Extent:
1 Linear Feet One Cubic Foot Box
Language:
English
Preferred citation:

[Title of Item], [Date of Item], [Box and Folder number], Clifford Brooks Shirley collection, Special Collections & Archives, Florida State University Libraries, Tallahassee, Florida. http://purl.fcla.edu/fsu/WWII_00_0647.

Background

Scope and content:

The collection includes 236 letters with some postcards and V-mails that "Cliff" wrote to his mother, Gladys Shirley, letters written to Gladys Shirley from some relatives of a soldier-friend of Cliff's who'd died in an accident, letters to Cliff from a woman he'd befriended in South Wales, and from his deceased friend's mother, to whom he'd written a note of condolence. News clippings, ephemera, and documents are also included. Cliff's letters express worries about post-war life and jobs, the desire for furlough, the point system, railroad strikes, Churchill, FDR, prices and wages, blackouts, housing problems in the US, draft dodgers, poor conditions in Germany (children begging GI's for candy, etc.), illness, United Nations Relief and Rehabilitation (UNRRA), and much more. Letters date from October 1943 though 1948. Cliff's letters to his mother end in March 1946.

Biographical / historical:

Clifford B. Shirley was born 1920 and passed away at the age of 74 in Kansas City, Missouri. Shirley served in the US Army in the 717th, 734th, and 735th Railway Operating Battalions as a railroad engineer. He trained a Ft. Leavenworth, Texas; Camp Thomas A. Scott, Fort Wayne, Indiana, Slidell and New Orleans, Louisiana; and Grand Rapids, Michigan. He was shipped overseas to England on May 1944 and served in Wales, England, France, Germany, Holland, and Belgium both during and after World War II. Shirley worked in the traffic control department of the Kansas City Terminal Railway for 46 years, retiring in 1985. He was a member of the Transportation Communications Union and the National Railway Historical Society.

Custodial history:

Glen E. Ballew acquired the collection after the passing of friend and co-worker Clifford Brooks Shirley on October 11th, 1994. Ballew discovered these letters, photographs and newspaper clipping in the attic of Shirley's residence. Glenn E. Ballew donated the collection to the FSU Institute on World War II and the Human Experience.

Transferred from the Institute on World War II and the Human Experience to FSU Libraries Special Collections & Archives in July 2022.

Rules or conventions:
Describing Archives: A Content Standard

Access and use

Restrictions:

This collection is open to all researchers.

Terms of access:

Works in this collection are protected by copyright. Re-use or copying of these works beyond Fair Use may require permission from rights-holders.

Preferred citation:

[Title of Item], [Date of Item], [Box and Folder number], Clifford Brooks Shirley collection, Special Collections & Archives, Florida State University Libraries, Tallahassee, Florida. http://purl.fcla.edu/fsu/WWII_00_0647.

Location of this collection:
116 Honors Way
Tallahassee
FL
32306-2047
USA