Gail M. Beaton - Colorado Women in World War II

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Gail M. Beaton

U NIVERSITY P RESS OF C OLORADO

Louisville

2020 by University Press of Colorado

Published by University Press of Colorado

245 Century Circle, Suite 202

Louisville, Colorado 80027

All rights reserved

The University Press of Colorado is a proud member of the Association of University Presses.

The University Press of Colorado is a cooperative publishing enterprise supported, in part, by Adams State University, Colorado State University, Fort Lewis College, Metropolitan State University of Denver, Regis University, University of Colorado, University of Northern Colorado, University of Wyoming, Utah State University, and Western Colorado University.

ISBN: 978-1-64642-032-2 (hardcover)

ISBN: 978-1-64642-033-9 (ebook)

https://doi.org/10.5876/9781646420339

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

Names: Beaton, Gail Marjorie, author. | Noel, Thomas J. (Thomas Jacob), writer of foreword.

Title: Colorado women in World War II / Gail M. Beaton ; foreword by Thomas J. Noel.

Other titles: Timberline books.

Description: Louisville : University Press of Colorado, 2020. | Series: Timberline books | Includes bibliographical references and index.

Identifiers: LCCN 2020023720 (print) | LCCN 2020023721 (ebook) | ISBN 9781646420322 (cloth) | ISBN 9781646420339 (ebook)

Subjects: LCSH: World War, 1939-1945WomenColorado. | World War, 19391945Participation, Female. | WomenColoradoHistory20th century.

Classification: LCC D810.W7 B39 2020 (print) | LCC D810.W7 (ebook) | DDC 940.53092/5209788dc23

LC record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2020023720

LC ebook record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2020023721

Cover illustration credits. Front, clockwise from top: WASP Archive, Texas Womans University, Denton; Steelworks Center of the West, Pueblo, Colorado; Denver Public Library, Western History Collection. Back cover, left to right: Bernice Moran Miller Collection, University of North Carolina at Greensboro; Bancroft Library, University of California, Los Angeles; Diana Doyle; Auraria Library, Denver, CO.

In honor of,

and in dedication to,

the women who proudly served in the military,

worked in defense plants and government agencies,

nursed overseas and state-side,

farmed and ranched,

and volunteered on the home front during World War II

In memory of my mother and father,

Alice M. Beaton and Arthur P. Beaton

Thomas J. Noel

Gail Beaton herself has been making Colorado womens history.

In 2018 she served on the Advisory Council that established the states first Center for Colorado Womens History at the Byers-Evans House Museum, which is owned and operated by History Colorado. Gail is also the author of the leading book in the field, Colorado Women: A History (University Press of Colorado, 2012). In addition to having written articles and other publications, she is a popular public speaker for civic organizations, churches, retirement communities, philanthropic organizations, libraries, museums, historical societies, and classes (middle school, high school, college, adult learning). She has portrayed many prominent women, including Gail Murphy: Colorados Rosie the Riveter, Sarah Platt Decker: National Womens Club Leader, Reformer, and Suffragist, and Sadie Likens: Denvers First Lady Cop.

Gails favorite role is Rosie the Riveter. Her favorite T-shirt proudly asserts the World War II slogan for women: We Can Do It. Gail does do it with this book. She brings back to life the many, many women who served during World War II, both in the military and on the home front.

As a teacher at the high school and college levels, she is experienced and knowledgeable about how to make history appealing and relevant, as you will discover in these pages.

During World War II, women served in every branch of the military and the Merchant Marines. Some worked in untraditional jobs as riveters, welders, air traffic controllers, bank tellers, inspectors, bullet makers, and chemists. Many, of course, served as nurses, others as technicians, drivers, code breakers, clerks, instructors, and mechanics, to name a few. Filing government forms may have been their biggest and most tedious job. The many roles women played during the war led to their much greater acceptance in subsequent years in many more occupations and at higher levels. Even women of color, Beaton finds, moved up the ladderalbeit temporarilyin terms of jobs and pay. Of the 300,000 who worked with the American Red Cross, women were probably a majority. Beaton explores many angles ranging from an army nurse landing on Normandy Beach to a Black Colorado womans typing work for a federal agency to a Red Cross doughnut girl serving soldiers in Europe. She finds that because of Colorados isolated inland position, far from any coastline, its wartime women have received little attention. This thoroughly researched, well-written, and comprehensive book fills that gap.

The Timberline Series of the University Press of Colorado, which takes pride in publishing the best new scholarship on Colorado as well as classic reprints, proudly adds Gail Beatons Colorado Women in World War II to the shelf of important books on the Highest State.

Material for this book came from a variety of sources. One was personal interviews. In 2014, I had the pleasure of interviewing Leila Allen Morrison, a World War II Army Nurse Corps veteran. For nearly twenty years, I had been modifying and refining Gail Murphy: Colorados Rosie the Riveter. Through this composite character, I present the wartime roles of American women. My interview with Leila sparked a desire to learn even more about the contributions of Colorado women. Over the years I interviewed women who served in the military and the Cadet Nurse Corps, worked in defense plants and offices, and participated in home front activities. I met many of them when I presented Gail Murphy at retirement communities, civic and social organizations, church auxiliaries and senior groups, libraries, and historical societies. Womenand a few menI interviewed warmly opened their homes to a stranger. They pulled out photo albums from closets, storage areas, and basements for me to pore over. I am eternally grateful to them and have enjoyed not only that initial interview but in many cases subsequent visits and phone conversations. They insisted that they had not done anything special; they just did it.