Awaiting WWII Letter, Veteran Gets Buddy’s Phone Call, Dies

MIAMI — A World War II veteran waiting to receive an undelivered letter he wrote his mother 42 years ago suffered a heart attack during a phone conversation with a wartime buddy and died.

William Croft’s letter was one of 235 from a World War II transport ship mailbag found last month in a Raleigh, N.C., attic.

The Postal Service was going to hand-deliver the letter to the Fort Lauderdale retiree sometime this week.

“He was so anxious to find out what was in the letter,” Croft’s wife, Juanita, said.

After the letter was discovered, Croft, 61, became a local celebrity, appearing on radio talk shows and the front page of newspapers.

It was an article in the Miami Herald that led Ken Heinrich to phone Croft Thursday night.

“All I wanted to do was call the guy and say, ‘Hey, I was your shipmate,’ ” said Heinrich, also 61. “It happened while I was talking to him, dear God.”