Violet Kathleen Caudle (1925-2011) of Iredell County, North Carolina, performed library work in the Women's Army Corps (WAC) from 1945 to 1949, and then spent over thirty years as a librarian in North Carolina. Violet Kathleen Caudle was born on June 30, 1925 in Iredell Country, North Carolina, to a tenant farmer and was raised all across the state. After graduating from high school in 1942, she worked in a mill. Caudle enlisted in the WAC on 30 June 1945 and attended basic training at Fort Des Moines, Iowa. She stayed at the base to attend clerk school and in November 1945 was sent to Camp Croft, South Carolina, where she worked briefly as a hospital receptionist before being transferred to the hospital library. In early 1946, she was transferred to Fort Moultrie, South Carolina, and then shortly thereafter to Fort Bragg, North Carolina. In the fall of 1946, Caudle was sent to Camp Stoneman, California, where she left for Tokyo, Japan. She arrived in Japan after a month-long journey on 25 December 1946. Caudle returned to the United States in August 1947 due to illness and stayed at Valley Forge Army Hospital through January 1948. She was then stationed at Fort Monmouth, New Jersey, until her discharge in July 1949. Following her discharge, Caudle enrolled in library school at Lenoir-Rhyne College, North Carolina. She spent two years there before transferring to Appalachian State University in Boone, North Carolina, where she received her degree in library science. In 1953 Caudle moved to Gastonia, North Carolina, to work as a librarian for two years. She then was employed in Greene County, North Carolina, for four years. Caudle later attended Emory University in Georgia for graduate studies in library science. In 1959 Caudle moved to Statesville, North Carolina, and worked as a librarian until her retirement. She died in Marion, North Carolina on 29 November, 2011.
