Virginia Gardner Becker Collection

Details

Who's responsible?: Martha Blakeney Hodges Special Collections and University Archives, UNCG University Libraries (Repository)
How much has been digitized?: Only a part of this collection has been digitized.
Where can I find more information?: https://uncg.as.atlas-sys.com/repositories/2/resources/1306
What's in the full collection?: 17 March 1999 oral history transcript; Black leather WAVES pocketbook (shoulder bag) with name written on inside label; WAVES navy blue wool havelock, circa 1943 with name written on seam label; "Sounding Off" Newsletter June 29- July 27, 1943 5 Issues; Graduation Program Naval Reserve Midshipmen's School, Northampton; Massachusetts dated June 29, 1943; Naval Supply Corps School Certificate dated January 10,1944; Navy WAVES Recruiting Mailer; Navy WAVES Midshipmen's School Yearbook from 1943-1944; Navy Supply School Regulations from October 1943; Navy Supply Corps School Publications Bulletin from September 1943; United States Naval Air Station Quonset Point, RI Cruise Book, 1944; 3 photographs of Audrey in WAVES uniform, circa 1943-1945.
Full biography: Virginia Becker (1919-2013), of Murfreesboro, North Carolina, a longtime bookkeeper, served in the United States Navy WAVES (Women Accepted for Volunteer Emergency Service) from June 1943 until October 1945. Virginia Gardner Becker was born in 1919 and grew up in Murfreesboro, North Carolina. She attended Chowan Junior College and graduated from the Woman's College of the University of North Carolina (now the University of North Carolina at Greensboro) in 1940. She worked at Thomasville Chair Company after graduation." In June 1943 Becker joined the WAVES as an ensign and completed basic training at Smith College in Northampton, Massachusetts, in July 1943. She was assigned to temporary duty in Scotia, New York, until she could attend Supply and Disbursing School at Harvard University in October 1943. In January 1944, she became assistant officer in charge of the Commissary Store at the Naval Air Station at Quonset Point, Rhode Island. On 20 April 20 1945 she married Bernie Becker, an employee of Pratt Reed Company, but she remained in the WAVES until 31 October 1945. She was discharged as a full lieutenant. After the end of World War II, Becker and her husband lived in Kentucky, Pennsylvania, and Maryland before settling in Martinsville, Virginia, with their three children. Becker spent many years working as a bookkeeper, first for a tobacco company and later for a church. She died on 19 September 2013 in Martinsville, Virginia.
Topics: Women's History
Military
Schools and Colleges
Branch of service: Navy -- WAVES
Conflict: World War II era (1940-1946)
Subject headings: World War, 1939-1945
United States. Navy--Women
Contributing Institution: Martha Blakeney Hodges Special Collections and University Archives, UNCG University Libraries

: Oral history interview with Virginia Gardner Becker; Virginia Gardner Becker primarily discusses her early life and her time in the U.S. Navy WAVES (Women Accepted for Volunteer Emergency Service) during World War II. Becker details her family background, including the early death of her mother; her experiences at Chowan Junior College; difficulties of transferring to the Woman's College of the University of North Carolina (now the University of North Carolina at Greensboro) in the late 1930s; and working at Thomasville Chair Company in the early 1940s. " Becker chiefly describes her experiences in basic training at Smith College and duty as a supply officer at the Naval Air Station, Quonset Point, Rhode Island. Topics include reactions she encountered when she joined the WAVES; social life at Quonset Point, including dancing with Henry Fonda at the Officers' Club; rationing; courtship with and marriage to Bernie Becker; her resolve to continue her service until the war ended; the mood of the country during World War II; and her opinion of the current opportunities for women in the military.

: Portrait of Virginia Gardner Becker; Formal portrait of Virginia Becker in WAVES uniform, circa August 1943.

: Virginia Gardner Becker working in commissary store; Virginia Gardner Becker talks on the phone while while working at her desk in the commissary store at the US Naval Air Station at Quonset Point, Rhode Island, in 1944.

: WAVES Supply Corps training class; WAVES Supply and Disbursing School training class poses for a formal photo at Harvard's Radcliffe College in late 1943. Virginia Becker is in the second row from the front, seventh from the left.

: WAVES navy blue havelock; WAVES navy blue havelock worn with raincoat. Worn by Virginia Gardner Becker from 1943 to 1945.

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Women Veterans Historical Project

Virginia Gardner Becker Collection

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