As an Estonian-born US diplomat, Melissa Foelsch Wells kept in touch with Estonia during much of her career. Up until 1991, Estonia was under the occupation by the Soviet Union, having been invaded in 1940. The US government never recognized the incorporation of Estonia, nor of the other two Baltic states, Latvia and Lithuania, into the Soviet Union.
Her main contact was Ernst Jaakson, who was Estonia’s representative to the US during all the years of Soviet occupation. They met several times during the seventies and eighties, always in New York, where he lived. When the country regained its independence in 1991, he became the ambassador for two years. On his 93rd birthday, in 1998, when Melissa knew that she would be going back to her native land, she met him for the last time. He died a month later, perhaps sensing that his mission had been accomplished. Melissa kept photos of Ernst in her album.
In 2025, the city of New York named a section of 34th Street after Ernst Jaakson.
In her various posts, she would receive letters from people in Estonia, even when it was occupied by the Soviet Union. In 1991, when she was Ambassador to Zaire, Estofilm sent her a letter.
She also did research on her family background. She visited an island off Finland in the eighties with distant cousins from her mother’s side to visit a graveyard of the Korjus ancestors. Further research by her cousins in Estonia revealed, however, that these graveyards do not contain the remains of relatives despite bearing the name Korjus. She came out in a Finnish magazine, Kotiliesi, in 1982.
When Melissa was stationed in São Paulo, she met the Estonian Consul there, Jüri Saukas, and became friends. In 1997, he went on a business trip to Tallinn – before Melissa had been considered for ambassador – and, at her request, he contacted cousins from her mother’s side of the family in Tallinn. Her son Christopher visited the cousins a few months later. When Melissa was ambassador, they became close friends and remained so for the rest of her life. Her sons keep in touch with their Estonian cousins.
During her time as ambassador in Tallinn, she used her diplomatic contacts to collect information on her ancestors. Diplomats from Russia, Germany and France helped with documents.
After retiring in 2001, she went back almost every summer to Estonia to visit her relatives and her former colleagues from the US embassy there. People on the street would recognize her and welcome her back.
Shortly after retiring, she hired Jüri Kruus, a sound engineer/sound director/restaurator to digitally remaster those songs of her mother for which she had copyrights. The result was a beautiful set of four CDs with a booklet that was sold in Estonia and online.
In 2012, Jaak Jõekallas, an Estonian author, published a book in Estonian about her mother, Unustamatu Miliza Korjus (Unforgetable Miliza Korjus). He interviewed Melissa several times at the home of her cousins in Tallinn had the book translated into English. Melissa had plans to try to publish it in English but this project did not move ahead.
In 2021, she moved to Washington, DC. There she had dinner in 2023 with the Estonian Ambassador, Kristjan Prikk, during which they discussed both current affairs and her time in Tallinn. He attended her funeral on July, 21, 2025 and maintains contact with her sons.