
Velma Jeanne Demaree a.k.a. "Jeanne"
Born: November 8, 1920 in Elgin, Fayette County, Iowa
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Velma Jeanne Demaree, who is always referred to as "Jeanne" in the letters is Sweetie's sister. When the Podcast begins in 1941, Jeanne is attending Nursing School in Iowa City, but she is able to spend some time visiting with Sweetie in nearby Fairfield Iowa (when Sweetie is at Parsons College), and later in Ottumwa, Iowa.
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Jeanne graduates Nursing school in summer 1943 and moves to Ottumwa for the fall where she works at the Hospital. However, she resigns from that job and moves to Des Moines.
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Jeanne is the maid-of-honor for Sweetie at Sweetie's wedding on December 3, 1943.
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During the rest of World War II, Jeanne works as a Nurse in private industry. She visits Sweetie when Sweetie and Lew are in Hutchinson, Kansas in late 1944. After the war, Jeanne continues with her career in nursing, and has some romantic relationships. However, she does not get married to the men that she is dating. Jeanne loans Sweetie a significant amount of money so that Sweetie and Lew can purchase their home in 1949 on County Line Road, in Hatboro, Pennsylvania.
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Sweetie visits her family in Iowa in the summer of 1950, and at that time it becomes known that Jeanne has been dating a man named Glen Joss.
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Sweetie confides in Jeanne all of her deepest thoughts and feelings through her letters.