Margaret Greene Collection

Details

Who's responsible?: Martha Blakeney Hodges Special Collections and University Archives, UNCG University Libraries (Repository)
How much has been digitized?: Most of this collection has been digitized. Some items have not beed digitized due to copyright or other logistical issues.
What's in the full collection?: 25 June 1999 oral history transcript; copy of poem written by Walter Mathau dedicated to a Red Cross worker and friend Helen H. Paulsen; portrait photograph of Margaret in Red Cross Uniform; various photographs of Margaret during her service in England, 1944.
Full biography: Margaret 'Peg' Greene (1917-2002), of Greenville, South Carolina, a member of the physical education faculty at The University of North Carolina at Greensboro (UNCG) from 1946 to 1979, served in Europe during World War II as a member of the Red Cross. Margaret 'Peg' Greene was born in Greenville, South Carolina, on 6 August 1917 and graduated from Parker High School in 1935. She then studied physical education at the Woman's College of the University of North Carolina (now UNCG) until 1939. She transferred to Appalachian State Teachers' College in Boone, North Carolina, and graduated in 1940. Greene's first job was as director of recreation in Fayetteville, North Carolina, where she helped organize activities for soldiers at nearby Fort Bragg. In August 1942, Greene joined the Red Cross. In the middle of training in Washington, D.C., Greene was sent overseas on a troop transport ship. She spent a short time in London before being assigned to the Red Cross club in Bristol, England, for six months and later Norwich, England, for another eighteen months. In Norwich, she was the program director and then the assistant director. After D-Day in June 1944, Greene went to France as director of a club in Cherbourg. She was then director of an officers' club in Luxembourg for two months in early 1945 before going to Viviez, Belgium, as director of another club. Greene returned home in August 1945 and was assigned to Fort Meade, Maryland, where she trained Red Cross workers. In 1946 Greene left the Red Cross and returned to the Woman's College as a faculty member. She taught physical education until retiring in 1979. Peg Greene died on 28 September 2002.
Topics: Women's History
Military
Schools and Colleges
Branch of service: Red Cross
Conflict: World War II era (1940-1946)
Subject headings: World War, 1939-1945
American Red Cross
Contributing Institution: Martha Blakeney Hodges Special Collections and University Archives, UNCG University Libraries

: Bishop's Palace in Norwich, England; Margaret Greene points up to the sign on the front of Bishop's Palace labeling it as the American Red Cross headquarters in Norwich, England, circa 1943.

: Margaret Greene; Formal portrait of Margaret Greene in her Red Cross uniform, circa 1944.

: Margaret Greene and airman in Norwich Cathedral; Margaret Greene sits across the table from an U.S. airman in an alcove of the Norwich Cathedral Bishop's Palace, which was the Red Cross headquarters, in 1944.

: Margaret Greene in front of tents; Margaret Greene stands with her arms crossed in front of a row of tents, circa 1944.

: Margaret Greene with friend; Margaret Greene (right) and fellow Red Cross worker Helen Paulsen stand outside the Norwich (England) Cathedral in 1944.

: Oral history interview with Margaret Greene; Primarily documents Margaret "Peg" Greene's interest in physical education; her studies at the Woman's College (now the University of North Carolina at Greensboro); and her experiences as a Red Cross worker in Europe during World War II. Greene discusses playing sports in high school; influential physical education teachers; physical education requirements at the Woman's College (WC); memorable WC professors, including Mary Channing Coleman, Ethel Martus, and Harriet Elliott; basketball games in Rosenthal Gymnasium; awareness of current events in the late 1930s; and her duties as Fayetteville's Director of Recreation, including petitioning local politicians for supplies. " Topics related to the Red Cross include traveling to London via ship and train; rations; being housed in the Bishop's Palace in Norwich in 1943 and 1944; daily bombing raids on Norwich; Eleanor Roosevelt's visit; a strafing attack; seeing the devastation and poverty in France after D-Day; a German U-boat attack in Cherbourg; washing her hair in the toilet in Cherbourg; meeting General George Patton in Luxembourg; living conditions in Europe; V-E Day celebrations in Belgium; her reaction to President Franklin D. Roosevelt's death; patriotism during World War II; her gratitude to England; and mixed feelings upon returning to as relatively unscathed America. " Other topics include her career at UNCG, the changes when Woman's College began accepting male students in 1964, and Greene's opinion of women in combat positions.

: Red Cross cottage in Norwich, England; Uniformed men walk in front of the Red Cross cottage at "the broads" (on the water) in Norwich, England, circa 1943. Two boats are tied up in front of it, and another uniformed man stands on the porch.

: Red Cross workers serve airmen at picnic; Red Cross workers, including Margaret Greene (center), roast hotdogs and serve a line of U.S. airmen at a Fourth of July picnic in Norwich, England, in 1944. The bottom is signed "In memory of a swell 4th of July 1944 with a lovely person. Jack R."

: Red Cross workers serving airmen; Red Cross workers serve food to a line of U.S. airmen at a Fourth of July picnic in Norwich, England, on July 4, 1944.

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Women Veterans Historical Project

Margaret Greene Collection

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