Letters reveal teen romance between pen pals

AKRON (AP) -- They have weathered nearly six decades of love, which blossomed with an ocean separating them -- she was a teen from England, he from Ohio.
Married for more than half a century, Paul and Stephanie Duke of Akron are sharing their real-life romance in a new book, which contains samples of the hundreds of letters they shared as teenage pen pals and later, cross-continent lovers.
"Dear Stephanie, Dear Paul," contains the correspondence from 1948 and 1949, when the boy from Akron and the girl from London first met thanks to an article about the American Midwest in the London Daily Mail.
"We don't really anticipate making a profit on it or selling many copies," Stephanie Duke said. "I'll probably donate a few to the libraries around."
"We just wanted to sort of get it out there," her husband said of the love story.
It began in March 1948 when Stephanie Grant, then 16, answered a call from the newspaper to submit her name for a pen pal list that solicited responses from the United States. A continent away, 18-year-old Paul, a fan of British radio broadcasts, thumbed through the newspaper a month later and picked Stephanie's listing from more than 100.
"Greetings at least from a red-blooded American youth of the Midwest. My name is Paul, and my age is 18. First of all, I must say that I hope you get a favorable impression of me from this letter, as I would like very much to have you as a regular correspondent," he typed in his first letter.
The young construction worker recommended U.S. author Thomas Wolfe, praised British radio and dreamed of seeing England.
"It seems incredible to me that he went down this list, and read each description and said, 'I'll write to her,"' said Stephanie, 74. "It changed my life. And his, too."
'A miracle of fate'
Paul, now 76, said "it was just one of those miracles of fate that I happened to pick it."
Stephanie replied three weeks later: "Britain returns greetings to America, at least I do, and it amounts to much the same thing. Your letter interested me very much and I do hope you will keep your promise to pour out thousands of words into letters."
Over the next month, the pair wrote several times, describing their lives to each other: Paul's three older brothers fought in World War II and returned home safely. Stephanie's father died in an accident during the war.
They often discussed literature, theater and music. Paul wrote about seeing foreign films and taking a photo of President Harry Truman at a 1948 campaign stop.
There were also questions about their cultural differences, including Paul once asking about Stephanie's accent and her inquiring about fast food.
"I have heard a lot about American hamburgers, but I don't know exactly what they are like. Are they a roll with ham in the middle?" she asked.
The letters came three times a week, and Paul began saving money for a trip to London, which he took March 31, 1949.
The teens spent three weeks together, and their relationship blossomed.
"Dear Stephanie, I hardly know where to begin," Paul wrote in a letter he penned on the flight back to Akron. "I am on a monstrous machine that is taking me thousands of miles away from you. ... Parting may be 'sweet sorrow,' but I don't mean to be parted from you again. The next time I hold you in my arms you won't get away -- ever!"
Stephanie expressed similar feelings.
"I wonder where you are now," she wrote. "I suppose still traveling farther away from me."
Paul flew back to London in November 1949. He and Stephanie were married there two months later before moving to Akron.
"Coming from Britain to America was like stepping out of a black-and-white movie into Technicolor," Stephanie said.
Married for 56 years, the couple has three children, two granddaughters and one great-grandson.
Paul is a writer, editor and former book dealer. Stephanie is a former educator.