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First Lieutenant Emily
honors other WWII veterans
When Emily Lewis Lee ('43) returned to JMU this spring
to participate in the university's celebration of James Madison's 250th
birthday, the jacket she wore was adorned with five special pins. To
her U.S. Army first lieutenant bars, a caduceus designating hospital
dietician, her JMU pin and a Tri-Sigma violet, she added the insignia
given to all former servicewomen who attended the dedication of the
women's service memorial in Washington, D.C. The pins linked important
facets of Emily Lee's past to the present.
Lee's experiences at World War II-era Madison College and with Tri-Sigma
helped determine who she is and what she stands for today. And although
the war spanned only a brief four years in comparison to 51 years working
with Tri-Sigma and the university's service boards, the war significantly
shaped Lee's generation.
Some events carry such power that they forever define the lives of those
involved. World War II was that event for Lee. Long after, Lee would
preface her nostalgic conversations with "before the war"
or "after the war." "Before" for Lee and other young
women at the newly named Madison College was a halcyon time. When she
arrived at school in 1939, the yearbook capsuled memories of "worship
services in the green out-of-doors at camp … the shuddering organ
in Wilson on Sunday afternoon worship … candlelight services …
and firelight picnics in professor Dingledine's back yard."
But one Sunday their world turned upside down - the Japanese unexpectedly
attacked the U.S. Naval Base at Pearl Harbor. President Franklin D.
Roosevelt responded with a call to Congress for a declaration of war.
At Madison College, patriotic fervor reigned. President Samuel Duke
announced leave for all staff members who left for the military. Young
women bought defense stamps, knit wool squares for overseas and collected
tinfoil and tin cans for the "war effort." At least eight
professors - Anderson, Barber, Mc-White, Pittman, Schneider, Schubert,
Smith and Tressider - joined the armed services. Virginia Gov. Colgate
W. Darden Jr. requested one-fifth of the college's typewriters for the
army.
"At first it didn't change our lives too much," remembers
Lee. "But then one of my best friends, Frances "Dinny"
Agnor Traver, was engaged to a VMI cadet, so she left school to get
married."
Soon, wedding announcements and news clippings lined Lee's scrapbook.
By graduation in 1943, the halcyon days had disappeared - the college
camp closed, Dingledine had died, and blackouts supplanted many candlelight
evenings.
After graduation, Lee entered Johns Hopkins in Baltimore for a six-month
internship followed by another six months at Halloran Hospital on Staten
Island before she entered the Army Medical Corps as a dietician. Then
came medical basic training at Atlantic City, where big hotels were
serving as hospitals to ships unloading the wounded from Europe's battlefields.
Lighter moments eventually brightened the horizon. Like countless others,
Lee met her future husband, Luther M. Lee, while they were both stationed
at Ft. Bragg, N.C. "I outranked him when we were married in 1946,"
Lee laughs. "I was a first lieutenant; he was a second then."
The war had ended, the Allies were victorious, and Lee was ready for
her discharge. "We had to spend our first Christmas apart, though,"
she says. "He was at Fort Jackson, and I was at Fort Bragg. You
know in the '40s, you just didn't travel like you do now."
Like millions of other returning service men and women, Luther decided
to take advantage of the G.I. Bill, a thank you from a grateful nation
to those who had answered the call to arms. He entered the University
of South Carolina in Columbia to become an attorney. Going all year
with only a week off at Christmas and one in the summer, he finished
in 1950. The couple lived in one room, then in a small garage apartment.
"Living conditions were something at that time," Emily recalls.
"I sat for days in that room with nothing to do while he was gone,
so I went to the [Veterans Administration] hospital, and they said they'd
love to have me. So I started working as a dietician."
At Madison College, then still officially termed "a state college
for women," the times also were "a 'changing." Thirty-nine
men enrolled full time in the fall of 1946. At the close of 1947, part-
and full-time men numbered 101. It would take another decade, however,
before Madison College housed males.
Nearly six decades later, Emily Lee is widowed but still vitally involved
with the university and equally proud of it and the wartime contributions
of her generation. To reflect that continuing pride, she has pledged
the cost of a terrace for the new alumni building to remember and honor
individuals connected with JMU who served their country in World War
II.
So a call goes out to those WWII veterans still living and to the families
of the many who are now deceased. The alumni center will display the
names of WWII veterans who attended, taught or worked in any capacity
at Madison. Please send the veteran's name, branch of service and connection
to the university to Lisa Horsch, Development Office, JMU, MSC 8602,
Harrisonburg, VA, 22807.
And, of course, photos and written memories may accompany the information
for inclusion in a scrapbook to be housed at the Leelou Alumni Center.
By Nancy Bondurant Jones
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