On November 18, 2025, I visited the World War II Museum in New Orleans to drop off some supporting materials for my book A Father’s Letters. The museum accepted a copy of the book for their research library and a second book for their donor file. This file will include several of my father’s letters from the Colmar pocket region of France that he wrote from December 1944 through the summer of 1945.
Assistant Curator Brandon Daake (left) and Associate Curator Chase Tomlin (right) receive the book and support materials from Murray.
A couple of coincidences made this happen. First of all, the idea came to me from one of the attendees of one of my Decatur workshops at the DeKalb History Center. (It was the fellow in the purple shirt who suggested I contact the museum,)
Secondly, my older daughter Cynthia was in New Orleans for an anthropology conference. She accompanied me and witnessed the exchange at the museum. Cynthia was also in A Father’s Letters. She was 2 years old when this picture taken in 1984 with her grandfather, my sister Kay and yours truly wearing a Marcel Proust t-shirt no less.
That evening Cynthia and I celebrated New Orleans style with muffuletta sandwiches from at the Butcher Swine Bar and Deli in the Warehouse Arts District.
murraybrowne.org 
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