Special delivery: Holmes County-bound postcard now in the right hands after 78 years

Kevin Lynch, The Daily Record
·3 min read
Clara Harry in 1943, the year she and her sister were sent a postcard from someone in Texas to their home in Holmes County's Lakeville. The delivery finally arrived 78 years later to the Shreve post office where a delivery worker tracked down relatives and got the piece of mail through.
Clara Harry in 1943, the year she and her sister were sent a postcard from someone in Texas to their home in Holmes County's Lakeville. The delivery finally arrived 78 years later to the Shreve post office where a delivery worker tracked down relatives and got the piece of mail through.

"Mind-boggling."

That's how Barb Gardner describes the feeling of receiving a 78-year-old postcard intended for her late mother.

"We had no idea who the sender was," Gardner said. "We still don't know."

Gardner is the daughter of Clara Harry, the younger sister of the two girls to whom the postcard, sent in 1943 from Austin, Texas, was addressed. The long-delayed delivery arrived at the Shreve post office last month, creating a mystery solved by dedicated postal carrier Kelly Hoffee and the lightning-fast speed of the internet.

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Within six hours of an article and video about Hoffee's effort to find the family posting online at The-Daily-Record.com, the granddaughter of Clara Harry came forward.

"I'm so excited. I like a story with a happy ending," Hoffee said. "I'm just amazed at how fast things happened once that story got on the internet.

Gardner met Hoffee to pick up the postcard.

The personal greeting of a postcard sent nearly 80- years ago tells of life in Austin, TX.
The personal greeting of a postcard sent nearly 80- years ago tells of life in Austin, TX.

"My sister and I have been going through old letters and such to see if any of the names (on the postcard) sounded familiar," Gardner said. "We also got my brother involved. But nobody recognizes who the postcard came from.

It was signed by Naomi W. Spurier and thanked Clara Harry and her sister, Grace, for a valentine the girls had apparently sent to Spurier.

Grace Harry is shown in this 1943 photo. She and her sister, Clara, were sent a postcard that year. It finally showed up thanks to the efforts of a Shreve postal worker, and relatives of the sisters are glad to have it.
Grace Harry is shown in this 1943 photo. She and her sister, Clara, were sent a postcard that year. It finally showed up thanks to the efforts of a Shreve postal worker, and relatives of the sisters are glad to have it.

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"My mom and my aunt were born and raised in Texas, so we're thinking it may have been a friend from school or something like that, because it's not coming up to a relative that sent the card," Gardner said. "They moved to Ohio when my mom was 16. She would've been 23 at the time the postcard was sent."

Grace Harry, the older of the two sisters, went to college in Texas and worked as a teacher there before coming to Ohio. She died in 2020.

"It was really something," Gardner said. "My oldest sister (Susan Fortney) has all of mom's old postcards and letters and picture albums, and she spent several days going through articles and such, trying to find a name that matched the card. She found nothing. We still don't have any idea who the person was that sent it."

A postcard mailed from Texas 78 years ago was supposed to be delivered to this house on state Route 179 in Holmes County's Lakeville. It was addressed to Clara and Grace Harry. In the photo are Clara's aunts, Sophia and Emma, with her grandmother Rush.
A postcard mailed from Texas 78 years ago was supposed to be delivered to this house on state Route 179 in Holmes County's Lakeville. It was addressed to Clara and Grace Harry. In the photo are Clara's aunts, Sophia and Emma, with her grandmother Rush.

Gardner said her grandparents lived on state Route 179 in Lakeville, which is the address on the card. After her mother got married, they lived on a farm in Mohicanville, and then moved to Haysville after her father retired.

Clara Harry died in 2004.

Both Gardner and Fortney said their mother would not have been happy about all the fuss being made over a postcard that was meant for her.

"Mom didn't like everybody knowing her business," Fortney said. "My husband said she'd probably be kicking up some dust if she knew about all this."

Reach Kevin at klynch@the-daily-record.com.

This article originally appeared on The Daily Record: Family claims long lost postcard mailed to Holmes County 78 years ago