By Jess Nall
Tribune-Courier News Reporter

DRAFFENVILLE – In the past 50 years, the first astronauts landed on the moon, the Internet was invented, the United States combated troops in Vietnam, and Rock and Roll music found its place on the Billboard charts.

In the midst of amazing stories and unforgettable events, the tale of two pen pals, Judy Williams and Betty Fawns, is one worthy of a place in the history books.

Despite their 2,000-mile distance and cultural differences, the “surrogate sisters” inscribed their most intimate moments, shared their fears and recorded their personal triumphs in hundreds of letters dating back to 1958.

Fifty years ago, Judy Williams was a bright-eyed 11 year-old sixth-grader at Sharpe Elementary School. Across the northern border In Saskatchewan, Canada, Betty Fawns was of the same age and grade, studying “Our Friendly Neighbors,” the United States.

Williams recalled, “A boy in my class had received a letter from a girl in Canada. My teacher, Mr. Vernon, asked us to gather information about Kentucky to send to her. Well, the 11 year-old boy didn’t want to answer the letter to a girl and asked me if I wanted to write to her.”

Williams said she was elated and could hardly wait to get home that afternoon to write her northern friend and tell her about her country.

“I had read in the Paducah Sun-Democrat how to write to a pen pal,” Williams said. “I had all of these guidelines that I kept in a box of stationary. Every time I would get a letter from her, I would follow my outline and would try to write about all kinds of various things. In my first letter to her, the last line asks, ‘Do you like Rock and Roll?’”

Fawns commented that the two wrote about the weather, common hobbies like 4-H, school sports and music. Fawn said, “I believe our interests are what bonded us. Right from the beginning, we liked the same kinds of things.”

As the two grew older and their interests shifted, so did the content of their letters. “We wrote about our school and activities at first and then boys entered our lives, and we shared our deepest, darkest secrets.”

As the two got married and began starting their family, it’s as if their lives mirrored one another. “We had our families together,” Williams said.

Williams adopted a daughter in December of 1967, and Fawns had twin boys three months later. Williams laughed, “Then, in less than a year that following January, Betty had a baby boy, three babies in diapers.”

Williams said she was also pregnant at that time, but the child was born prematurely and didn’t survive. “She was there to help me emotionally through that phase of my life where I had lost my child.”

Williams’ Canadian pen pal supported her as she had two children born 10 and a half months apart. “She encouraged me then because she has had three babies at once. If she could get through three little ones, surely I could get through two babies. That was a unique phase of my life and I was lucky to have a friend to write to about all of those experiences.”

Fawns has visited Williams three times over the years, once for her 30th birthday in 1976, in 1996 for her 50th birthday and now, in 2008, for their 50th anniversary as pen pals. Williams traveled to Canada in 1998.

Throughout the years, the two women have come to know more than just one another. As their long letters depicted their family members and acquaintances, neither were strangers to each other’s relatives.

Williams said, “When I went to Canada and was introduced to her sisters and mother, it was an emotional feeling for me because I felt like, this is family. They were never strangers.”

The same connection was felt when Fawns met with Williams’ mother, who has Alzheimer’s and is living in a nursing home. “My mother and I had an extra special relationship, and I would often let her read the letters.

“She isn’t always alert and sometimes asks who I am, but she has known Betty almost every time. My mother says Betty is her other daughter, and yesterday when we were visiting her, my mom wouldn’t let go of her hand as we were leaving. Betty said she would be back tomorrow and asked my mom, ‘you gonna keep me?’ My mother said ‘yes’ and Betty said, ‘you’ll keep me in your heart’ and mom said, ‘always.’”

Williams said this year, the two have had more personal time together. In the past, the two did a lot of sight-seeing. “This time, we are relating with each other and doing more intimate things like cooking Easter dinner together.”

As their friendship has grown, their bond is hard to describe. “We have always been pals to each other. I don’t have a sister, and to me, she is a surrogate sister. She has sisters ...”

Fawns interjected, “And I say she is more than a sister. I don’t know how to explain it. My relationship with my sister and my relationship with Judy, there is no comparison. It’s almost as if we are one.”

Throughout the decades, historical tragedies have bonded the two together. Williams recalled, “She called me after 9/11. I had been to New York with my daughter when she was in band at school and had actually stayed at a hotel that is in-between the two towers. I had been up in the towers and had written to her about that. Knowing that it was gone, it touched me personally having been there at one time and to know the devastation and the loss of so many lives. I wondered what would happened to our country.”

Fawns responded, “Even in Canada, there is a huge shock, and immediately I thought about Judy and how it would impact her. I contacted her to make sure she was okay emotionally through it all.

As the two “kindred spirits” sat at the dining room table recalling past experiences, Fawns described her feelings about her pen pal.

“I have always found a gentleness in Judy’s letters, and I have seen that in the person, right from the beginning. I find her very supportive, like she is a part of me and always will be. We’ve become one, and I love her very much and more than a sister. How do you put in words, feelings?”

Williams agreed, “I have never had as close a friend as I have had with my friend from Canada. She is a very compassionate person, and I love her.”

Even now after countless letters have been shared between them, they both say they are anxious to hear from one another. “Often, I pick it up out of the mailbox and open it before I get up the driveway, I’m that eager to hear from her.” Williams said.

And though this visit will soon come to its end, the two women plan to continue their hand-written letters that will always end with the salutation, “Your pen pal.”