A Valentine's Day Love Story

James and Barbara Graham enjoy liberty at the Mandalay Club in Harlem in 1945.

These events did not occur in February during Mason history, but the story is too good to not tell.

One day in the fall of 1944, James Graham saw a picture of Gordon Buchanan's sister Barbara. Graham was smitten, and asked "Skinny" if he could write her a letter. Buchanan said sure, no big deal, but before he knew it, Graham and "Bobbie" had quite a correspondence going.

Moored in New York, native New Yorker Buchanan took his friend and shipmate home with him. Much to Graham's disappointment, Barbara wasn't home. Staying in the guest room, he awakened to see Bobbie tucking in the blankets on his bed. The first thing James said to her was, "I'm going to marry you someday."

Barbara Buchanan married James Graham on May 27, 1945. The happy couple still lives in New York.


World War II: History in the Key of Jazz

November 1943 | March 1944 | April 1944 | July 1944 | December 1944
January 1945 | May 1945 | June 1945 | Valentine's Day | This Month Home