I just had another postcard-related thought.
It just struck me how horribly, tragically impersonal it is to find out about a loved one's death by getting a postcard returned with the word "deceased" stamped across it. Not even handwriting to convey the message... a rubber stamp, used because it can send the same message over and over again...
Yes, that would be terrible. I saw the movie with a friend who is a letter carrier. She insists the P.O. wouldn't do that -- just stamp it "deceased" and send it back. But I mentioned that in a post a long time ago and someone industriously looked it up somehow and found that it was common practice up until some certain time, which I believe was after 1983.
In any case, I think they would have just delivered the postcard to Lureen. So this is a bit of cinematic license. It's lucky for Ennis, though, because then he would never have found out. (Unless Lureen saw the Riverton postmark and took the initiative to track Ennis down, but that seems unlikely.)
Would he have shown up in November and waited in vain for Jack? Would he assume Jack had quit him? Would he call the house in Childress to find out what happened?