Anita M. Keller 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?: 11 January 2000 oral history transcript; photographs of Anita in uniform with friend and mother in Miami, 1943.
Full biography: Anita May Gahn Keller (1923-2011), of St. Louis, Missouri, and Washington, D.C., served as a civilian in the Air Transport Command and Signal Corps from 1942 to 1946. Anita May Gahn Keller lived in St. Louis, Missouri, until the age of thirteen, and then moved to Washington, D.C. She graduated from Sacred Heart Academy High School in 1941 and then studied drama and speech at Catholic University in Washington. She moved to Chicago, Illinois, with her family in 1942 and worked briefly for the Railroad Retirement Board." Keller joined the Air Transport Command in 1942 as a civilian. She had training at Quantico, Virginia, and then began work in the Pentagon Annex as a cryptographer. In February 1943, she was transferred to the 36th Street Air Force Base in Miami, Florida, where she continued working as a cryptographer and also trained other in coding and decoding. In 1945, Keller transferred as a civilian to the Signal Corps and was relocated to Jefferson Barracks in St. Louis. After the war ended, she organized counselors who processed men out of the military. She met Herbert Keller during this time and they were married in May 1947. Keller left the work force to raise their two children. Herbert Keller worked for National Cash Register, which took the family to Lexington, Kentucky, and then, in 1970, to Greensboro, North Carolina.
Topics: Women's History
Military
Branch of service: Other -- Air Transport Command and Signal Corps
Conflict: World War II era (1940-1946)
Subject headings: World War, 1939-1945
Contributing Institution: Martha Blakeney Hodges Special Collections and University Archives, UNCG University Libraries

: Oral history interview with Anita Keller; Primarily documents Anita May Keller's life in Washington, D.C.; her experiences in the Air Transport Command and Signal Corps during World War II; and her thoughts on the Vietnam War. Keller describes her enjoyment of high school; the bombing of Pearl Harbor; patriotism and concern for Europe; changes at Catholic University after the U.S. entered the war; and civilians leaving Washington at the start of the war. " Topics related to Keller's civil service in the Air Transport Command (ATC) and Signal Corps include her duties as a cryptographer; working on shifts; the safety of Washington in the 1940s; training at and transportation to Quantico; advantages of living in Washington; choosing not to join the military; housing in Miami; memorable supervisors; flying on ATC planes; her parents' jobs during the war; social life, including dates and an officers' club on Miami Beach; blackouts along the coast; uniform regulations; President Franklin Roosevelt's death; having tea with Eleanor Roosevelt; learning about V-E Day from a top secret teletype message; the atomic bomb; and President Harry Truman's speech. " Other topics include meeting her husband at Jefferson Barracks; her son's involvement in Vietnam War protests; her opinions of Vietnam and of women in combat; and her contribution to the war effort.

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Women Veterans Historical Project

Anita M. Keller Collection

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