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Dear Folksies Home

Follow the Adventures of the 59th Evac.
Hospital with Dear Folksies

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On April 11, 1942, René Bine Jr., MD — a 26-year-old resident from Stanford Hospital and newly-minted Army lieutenant — wrote the first of more than 230 letters to his family in San Francisco. René sent dispatches from several locations stateside, and then overseas in North Africa, Sicily, Italy, France and Germany – every place the 59th Evacuation Hospital, his World War II M.A.S.H. unit, set up their tents and cared for the sick and wounded. Each single-spaced, typed letter began with the salutation, “Dear Folksies.”

On April 11, 2017, the Dear Folksies “blog” launched – featuring excerpts from René’s letters posted 75 years to the day after he wrote them, and illustrated with photographs from his historic 3-1/2 year adventure.

In December 2020, Dear Folksies morphed from a 524-post blog into this website. For tips on accessing the various features of the site, check out FAQs. For more background on René and Dear Folksies, visit About.

 

René's Letters Home - April 1942 to October 1945

Stateside – West Coast

April 11 – August 15, 1942

Stateside – East Coast

August 16 – December 14, 1942

Sailing the Atlantic

December 15 – December 29, 1942

Casablanca, Morocco

December 30, 1942 – June 19, 1943

North African Convoy

June 20 – June 25, 1943

Bizerte, Tunisia

June 26 – August 5, 1943

Sicily

August 6, 1943 – May 27, 1944

Italy

May 28 – August 10, 1944

On The Mediterranean

August 11 – August 14, 1944

France

August 15, 1944 – March 28, 1945

Germany

March 29 – October 6, 1945

San Francisco

October 7 – October 17, 1945

DEAR FOLKSIES – CURATED SELECTIONS

A Wartime Love Story

Lois and René

Living Dangerous Lives

René’s Jewish French Relatives

An Uncensored Perspective

Dr. Philip Westdahl’s Journal