Administrative/Biographical History
In December of 1966, Judy Nelson (later Mills) began writing letters to Rockford-area soldiers listed in the local newspaper. Judy’s father, who was a veteran of WWII, inspired her to do something kind for the soldiers. Every night Judy and her parents sat at the kitchen table to read every letter. The soldiers and Mills corresponded for a year and a half. Mills kept her letters strictly friendly and just wanted the soldiers to know that people back home continued to care for them. Writing the letters wasn’t cheap. Friends and coworkers donated money to her so she could continue her campaign, and the local newspaper asked for future donations while naming her the letter-writing champion of 1967. Mills’ blossoming relationship with her future husband, whom she would later divorce, along with the difficulties of funding and finding time for her letter-writing caused her to stop in 1968. The estimated total count of the letters written by Mills between 1967 and 1968 numbers anywhere from 1,500 to 2,000. Two hundred fifty-seven servicemen wrote back. By the time she stopped writing in 1968, she had over 500 response letters. Mills passed away on March 16, 2011 in her home after a prolonged health battle.
