Charles L. Hearn

The above pictures of Aubrey Hearn and Florence Conner are from the time period covered by these letters, 1925-1929, when both were in their late teens and early 20s. In 1925, Aubrey was attending Howard College (now Samford U.) and Florence was in high school (she entered Shorter College in 1926). Aubrey's college roommate was Allen Conner, Florence's brother. These letters highlight the early part of their relationship, which culminated in their marriage in September, 1933.

Aubrey's first letter, in January 1925, was before he had met Florence. They didn't meet in person until May 20, 1926. Additional details of their early relationship are in a scrapbook kept by Florence (see HIStory) and diaries kept by Aubrey (see Aubrey's Diaries). In general, most of the 1925-1929 letters are from Aubrey to Florence. Either he didn't save all her letters, or some letters were lost or destroyed. (Aubrey and Florence were very prolific letter writers and saved many of them, beginning in the ones presented here and lasting well into the 1950s--see "Old Times Remembered" Newsletter links. Unfortunately, some of these were kept in the basement of the family home on Westwood Ave in Nashville, where they were subject to water damage.)

While these letters will be of most significance to family members, they may also be of general interest as illustrations of how young people communicated in the days before the Internet. Unfortunately, letter writing is becoming a lost art.

We thank Nancy Hearn Clark for transcribing the 1925-1929 letters. The links below will download PDF files containing the transcribed letters for that time period. The downloaded file can be saved to your computer for convenient reading. (If your web browser does not download the file, it may be necessary to install a recent version of Adobe Reader or other PDF file viewer on your computer.)