William (Bill) and Bertha Foran were Zoe Foran’s parents (and future mother and father-in-law to Tom Cartmell).

They lived in Sorento, Illinois, a small town (population 840 in 1940) 14 miles northwest of Greenville, where Tom grew up. Bill and Bertha operated a hardware store and a funeral home. Bill served as the Sorento postmaster.

The Forans had two children, Zoe and Ruth.

Bill Foran died in 1975, and Bertha in 1982.

During Tom’s wartime experience, he wrote a number of letters to the Forans, which they saved. They also preserved other letters that Tom had written, which were ultimately sent to Tom’s daughter, Tome Elizabeth. She has shared those letters with me with the intention of including them in this Thomas Cartmell collection.