Andree Fifield 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/1163
What's in the full collection?: 26 April 1999 oral history transcript; copy of Washington Post article with Andree in the photograph from September 5, 1945; photographs of the Navy WAVE Quarters and WAVES on parade in Washington D.C., 1944-1945; Naval records of service and recommendations, 1943-1945.
Full biography: Andrée B. Fifield (1921-2011) was a secretary for the Office of Naval Intelligence and Joint Chiefs of Staff as a member of the United States Navy WAVES (Women Accepted for Volunteer Emergency Service) from 1943 to 1945. Andrée B. Wetzler Fifield was born in New York City and raised in Michigan, France, and New York by adoptive parents. She attended Erasmus Hall High School in Brooklyn, but graduated from a high school in Sayville, Long Island, in 1940. She went on to attend Bryant College, a two-year business school in Providence, Rhode Island, where she met her future husband. After graduation, Fifield moved to York, Pennsylvania, with her family and worked as a secretary at York Safe and Lock Company. She later moved with them to Chicago and worked for the government at the Salary Stabilization Unit. On 13 March 1943, Fifield enlisted in the WAVES (Women Accepted for Volunteer Emergency Service). She was in one of the first classes assigned to basic training at Cedar Falls, Iowa. After basic training, she was sent to Washington, D.C., where she briefly worked in the National Archives (NARA) while waiting for security clearance to become a secretary in the Office of Naval Intelligence. Fifield went on to work for the Joint Chiefs of Staff in the Pentagon Building and briefly for the Office of the President. She was discharged from the WAVES in October 1945. Andr'e Fifield married Donald Fifield in 1945. After the war they lived in Chicago while he attended school and then worked for Campbell Soup Company. They moved to Boston in 1948 and then to Albany, New York in 1955. Three years later the Fifields moved to Syracuse, New York, where they remained for twenty-two years. During this time Fifield worked as a decorator for Sears Roebuck and gave birth to two children. The Fifields went on to live in New Hampshire and Pinehurst, North Carolina. She died on 18 May, 2011.
Topics: Women's History
Military
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

: Andree Fifield in uniform; Andree Fifield poses in her WAVES uniform, circa 1944.

: Andree Fifield with her ONI bosses at her wedding; Andree Wetzler Fifield at her wedding reception on June 29, 1945, flanked by three of her Office of Naval Intelligence supervisors in dress white uniforms.

: Oral history interview with Andree Fifield; Interview documents AndrÃƒÂ© B. Fifield's early life; secretarial work in the U.S. Navy WAVES (Women Accepted for Volunteer Emergency Service) during World War II, and her marriage to Donald Fifield. Fifield describes her life before the war, including being an only child to a single mother and a first generation French-American; her mother finding her foster family; working her way through high school and college as a waitress; and meeting her husband at Bryant College. She also discusses her extended family in eastern France; listening to the radio with her future husband during the attack on Pearl Harbor; and going with him to enlist in the navy." Fifield's discussion of her navy service includes being one of the first classes of WAVES at Cedar Falls, Iowa; basic training experiences such as getting shots, drills, and taking tests; working at the National Archives while waiting for security clearance; secretarial work for the Office of National Intelligence, the Joint Chiefs of Staff, and the Office of the President; living in an apartment next to the White House with six other girls; and regretting not making the navy a career. Other topics from the war include popular songs, meeting President Truman, and failed plans to invite Eleanor Roosevelt to their apartment." Fifield also talks about her husband's service and career. She recalls keeping in touch with him during the war; marriage after they were both discharged; and moving frequently for his schooling and career.

: WAVES at wedding reception; Andree Wetzler Fifield (in gown) poses with four of her WAVES roommates at her wedding reception on June 29, 1945. The women, dressed in dress white uniforms and toasting with punch, are Ethel Feldman, Dana Miller, Marian Kerr, and Marion Burnham.

: Wedding photo of Andree and Donald Fifield; Andree Wetzler and Donald I. Fifield walk down the aisle after exchanging vows at Western Presbyterian Church in Washington, D.C., on June 29, 1945. Although Donald is in uniform, Andree wears a wedding dress; the ceremony occurred shortly after a directive authorizing WAVES, with permission, to be married out of uniform.

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Andree Fifield Collection

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