02/27/2023
A matriarch's heroic secret is revealed (Shared from CNN's Good News)
Belle Irvin-Partridge (pictured farthest right in the image above) regaled her children for years with stories from her time in the Women’s Army Corps during World War II. But there was an important detail she left out, one that her daughter Brenda didn’t uncover until after Belle’s death: She was an integral member of the 6888th Central Postal Directory Battalion, the only all-women, predominantly Black unit to serve in Europe during the war. Brenda did some digging on the internet and stumbled upon a black-and-white photo of her mother in uniform alongside the other women of her battalion. Though the women didn’t see combat, their time in Europe wasn’t short on danger: They dodged German U-boats in the North Atlantic and survived a rocket explosion upon their arrival in England. The women worked tirelessly to sort and send mail to US service members stationed overseas. It took decades for their work to be recognized but last year, President Joe Biden awarded the surviving members of the battalion the Congressional Gold Medal, and Tyler Perry is directing a film about the women. To Brenda, though, Belle Irvin-Partridge was just her mom — a quiet hero whose humble work made history.
