Love, war, and legacy: The enduring bond of Dorothy and Jim Salter

Dorothy Virginia Fellers was born in Martinsburg, West Virginia, on April 26, 1915 -- 110 years ago today.

Her ancestry included Copenhaver, Stephens, Beard, Shuart, Whitson, Knight, Miller and French. Her Feller and Stephens ancestors had been in what's now Berkeley County since at least the 1830s.

Dorothy’s parents, Nellie Beard Fellers and Percy Fellers

As a young single woman in 1937, at age 22, Dorothy lived with her parents at 114 South Raleigh Street and worked at a hosiery mill. Her employment reflects the economic reality for many working-class women during the Great Depression. The hosiery industry was one of the few avenues of employment for young women in industrial towns like Martinsburg.

She wasn’t there for long however. She left the mill behind to marry James William "Jim" Salter, a Georgia native. Born April 29, 1915, Jim was three days younger than her.

Jim Salter

Soon after they married, Dorothy's father, Percy, died in Martinsburg in the summer of 1938. An employee of the Interwoven Stocking Company -- possibly the same factory where Dorothy had worked -- he was on the job early on a Saturday morning when he had a heart attack. He died later that same day at home. He was 50.

This tragedy happened right around the time Dorothy got pregnant with her first child.

Dorothy and Jim lived in Greenbelt, Maryland, early in their marriage. This was a planned community near College Park, just northeast of Washington, D.C., that had been developed during the New Deal era.

While in their early 20s, before the birth of their son James III ("Jimmy"), they were both on the staff of a weekly local newspaper called …