SAUGUS — Former Saugus resident Donald Junkins has released a book filled with hundreds of letters between family members serving on the front lines, from World War I to Vietnam.
Junkins, 81, was born and raised in Saugus and grew up in the Lynnhurst section of town. An award-winning poet and retired professor at the University of Massachusetts at Amherst, Junkins said “Buster’s Book” is named after his older brother, Roland “Buster” Junkins, who served in World War II from December 1943 to the spring of 1946.
“My mother wrote him every day, so that’s a lot of letters,” said Junkins, who was 10 when the Japanese bombed Pearl Harbor. “There are 450 letters there. I had several first cousins and a whole bunch of neighborhood friends that were in the Army too. During the war my mother kept buying him six-month subscriptions to the Item. So he read the Item all the during the war.”
In the meantime, Junkins said family members were writing letters to one another as well, as was common at the time.
“I have letters from my Aunt Myrtle, my Aunt Marion, my Aunt Hazel”¦ and so forth,” said Junkins. “My brother saved every letter that he got and he shipped several boxes of them home. I’ve got several thousand letters. Families were really close in those days.”
Junkins said it took him two years to put the book together, which also includes letters from his father to his mother during World War I. He said writing the book was the only way to preserve his family’s memory.
“I’m the last one left,” said Junkins, who currently lives in Deerfield. “The book came about because I realized if I don’t do something with all this stuff ”¦ nobody writes letters anymore ”¦ it’s a part of United States history. It was my last chance to preserve the memory and the history of my own family.”
The book also includes family photos and introductions to each section of letters. The final two sections of the book include interviews with Junkins’ cousin, Col. Charles Haywood, who served in both the Korean War and in Vietnam.
In a phone interview Tuesday, Junkins also recalled growing up in Saugus and Lynn. Junkins, who played football at Saugus High School in 1947 and 1948, said he attended “hundreds” of football games at Manning Field when he was young, and in the late 1930s, his brother and cousin Robert White made the front page of the Daily Item after falling through the ice at Flax Pond.
White is also featured in Buster’s Book with three chapters of letters from when he was an aerial gunner in New Guinea during World War II. Junkins said White is 91 today and lives in Peabody.
“He shot down a couple of Japanese zeroes,” said Junkins. “I have a lot of letters from Bob White. He’s still got all his marbles and walks four miles a day, and he used to run five miles a day. He’s in perfect health and still drives his car. He’s terrific. I dedicated the book to him and the memory of my other cousins.”
Junkins has published 15 books in his life. While most of them have been poetry anthologies, Junkins has also published two novels, one of which features quotes of the Daily Item to start each chapter.
“Buster’s Book” is available on Amazon.com.
Matt Tempesta can be reached at [email protected].
