‘The girl I love with a passion unparalleled’: Portland scion fought in WWII; his letters capture a life that never was
Updated 8:33 AM;
Today 7:04 AM
Portland s Elliott R. Corbett II was an avid outdoorsman and dreamed of becoming a writer. (Photo courtesy of Chris Leenaars)
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“Sudie, I might say with little or no compulsion that I miss you hellishly and I’ve had enough of tramping around Europe.”
This was how Elliott R. Corbett II began the last letter he wrote to his girlfriend, Ellen “Sudie” Zinsser. Sudie never heard from him again.
Elliott, a 22-year-old U.S Army “bazooka man” and scion of Portland’s most-prominent political and commercial dynasty, disappeared in November 1944 during the Battle of Hurtgen Forest.