DON'T GIVE UP

Ed Bray is a WWII veteran with two Purple Hearts and a dozen other medals, but the toughest battle he ever fought has been with illiteracy. The war hero, 89, kept his inability to read or write secret for eight decades. But since his wife died in 2009, Bray has been learning, and last week he read his first-ever book, a third-grade-level biography of George Washington. He hopes his story will encourage other secret illiterates to get help. “Get in there and learn, baby—now!” he said. “You ain’t going to learn in that pine box.”