Bess A. Phifer Collection

Details

Who's responsible?: Martha Blakeney Hodges Special Collections and University Archives, UNCG University Libraries (Repository)
How much has been digitized?: This collection has been digitized in its entirety.
Where can I find more information?: https://uncg.as.atlas-sys.com/repositories/2/resources/1397
What's in the full collection?: June 2021 oral history transcript, copies of photographs
Full biography: Bess A. Phifer (b. 1917), of Grover, North Carolina, served as a recreation director with the American Red Cross from 1943-1945. Bess Phifer was born on 13 October 1917 in Grover, North Carolina. Phifer graduated from Blacksburg High School in 1935 and then enrolled at Asheville Normal and Teachers College where she majored in Education and graduated in 1939. After college, Phifer taught sixth graders and coached a girls’ basketball team in Waco, North Carolina. Phifer joined the American Red Cross SRAO in the summer of 1943 and did her training at American University in Washington, D.C. Her first assignment was at Kilauea, Hawaii where she worked with the Rest and Recuperation camp. Her duties included organizing recreational activities like volleyball, horseback riding and movie nights. Phifer was in Hawaii for about a year before she was reassigned to Guam to help with the Rest and Recuperation there. Phifer was there until World War II ended in 1945 when she returned to the United States and resigned from the American Red Cross.
Topics: Women's History
Military
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

: A hut in Guam; Photograph of a hut in Guam.

: Bess Hambright Phifer as tour guide; Bess Hambright Phifer as a tour guide at Halemaumau Crater, Kilauea, Hawaii.

: Bess Hambright Phifer in Red Cross uniform; Headshot of Bess Phifer in a Red Cross uniform.

: Bess Hambright Phifer in Red Cross uniform; Photograph of Bess Hambright Phifer in a Red Cross uniform in Hawaii.

: Bess Hambright Phifer in Red Cross uniform; Photograph of Bess Hambright Phifer in a wool Red Cross uniform.

: Bess Hambright Phifer in bathing suit on a beach; Bess Hambright Phifer in a bathing suit on a beach in Hawaii.

: Bess Hambright Phifer leaning against a tree; Bess Hambright Phifer leans against a tree.

: Bess Hambright Phifer on horseback as tour guide; Bess Hambright Phifer touring on Horseback as a tour guide in Volcano National Park, Hawaii.

: Bess Hambright Phifer outside a Red Cross quonset hut; Bess Hambright Phifer outside a Red Cross quonset hut in Guam.

: Bess Hambright Phifer outside the Service Club; Bess Hambright Phifer outside the Service Club in Guam.

: Bess Hambright Phifer with Marriott at Hawaii National Park; Bess Hambright Phifer and Marriott at Hawaii National Park in front of a residence hall.

: Bess Hambright Phifer with Marriott in front of a statue; Bess Hambright Phifer and Marriott in front of statue in Hawaii.

: Bess Phifer on New Year's Eve; Bess Hambright Phifer sitting at a snack bar on New Years Eve in Hawaii.

: First headquarters in Guam; First headquarters structures in Guam.

: Oral history interview with Bess A. Phifer; Bess Phifer primarily documents her time in the American Red Cross during World War II. Phifer talks about the process of locating to Hawaii and recounts meeting the wife of the head of National Geographic Magazine. Phifer discusses the fragile state of the soldiers that came to the Rest and Recuperation Camp, especially the soldiers who were prisoners of the Japanese Imperial Army and suffered through the Bataan Death March in 1942. Phifer also reflects upon the state of the Pearl Harbor and that she was on the USS Missouri in Tokyo Bay on 2 September 1945 for the signing of the Japanese Instrument of Surrender which ended World War II.