University of Virginia Library

VIII
Working With the Red Cross

When hostilities in Europe began in the fall of 1939, the Albemarle
County Chapter of the American Red Cross, under the excellent
chairmanship for John F. Faris of Red Hill, was engaged in many
phases of civilian relief in its educational programs, in Junior Red
Cross activities, and, of course, in Home Service, which is a primary
responsibility in peace as well as in war. The Chapter maintained a
small office in the National Bank Building in Charlottesville. There
Miss Pauline Beard, with no paid assistant, executed the double duties
of Executive Secretary and Home Service Secretary. Under the Congressional
charter granted the American Red Cross on January 5,
1905, this organization was designated as the official agency to aid
servicemen, veterans, and their families in times of disability or
trouble and “to serve as a medium of communication between the
people of the United States and their Army and Navy.” In order to
carry out such obligations, it must be prepared to fulfill all requests
from the Army and Navy in such matters as obtaining social histories,
confidential reports on family conditions, and other information
needed in questions of dependency discharges, furloughs, clemency,
etc. In 1939, eleven such reports were requested and made.
In the same year, twenty years after the close of World War I, forty-eight
veterans were assisted in various ways. This Home Service
work may not appear arduous, but the lapse of time and, usually, the
loss of papers made such matters as assisting veterans in establishing
their claims for government benefits long and difficult processes.

At that time the Volunteer Special Service Committee may not
have been organized strictly in line with Red Cross custom, but it
was accomplishing many results. This committee, started in the days
of the Great Depression, was composed of about thirty women from
the city of Charlottesville and from various parts of Albemarle
County, and its duty was to maintain a prompt and efficient group
of volunteers for any emergency. These volunteers met regularly
and discussed what they felt were local human needs and what they
could do to meet them. They worked hard, helping to start the

County School Lunch Program, distributing Red Cross garments,
and doing deeds of kindness too numerous to mention. Other organizations,
also, looked to them for contact in their communities and
often called upon them to render various services. Also in the Volunteer
Special Service Committee, and more in line wih Red Cross
organizational custom, were the following subdivisions: the Braille
Corps, a unit very little advertised but one which, under the chairmanship
of Miss Mary Harris, transcribed thousands of pages of reading
matter for the blind; the Motor Corps, under Miss Mary Stamps
White, which consisted at that time only of a chairman and a group
of untrained women upon whom she could call to render such services
as driving patients to hospitals and clinics; the Staff Assistance
Corps, which, under Mrs. Blakeley Carter, had recently been organized
to provide secretarial help for the Red Cross office: and the Production
Corps, under Mrs. Isaac Walters.

It was the Production Corps which received the first war call, and
the fact that it had already been organized made it necessary for it
only to expand. It did not have to start from the beginning, as had
to be done in many other Red Cross chapters. In October, 1939,
the Albemarle County Chapter was asked to produce hundreds of
garments for victims of war. Within ten days volunteers, mostly
enrolled from church groups, were busily engaged in sewing layettes,
dresses, and hospital shirts and in knitting sweaters and socks. County
authorities helped enormously by lending workrooms in their new
office building. By the following May a total of 2,151 garments
and an additional 201 layettes had been made and shipped overseas.
It has been stated, and there is no reason to doubt it, that the Albemarle
County Production Corps was the first in the state of Virginia
to get started on a European quota. Certainly it was among the first

The next call received from headquarters of the American Red
Cross also came in October. The Chapter was requested to send a
representative to Washington to attend the first national course for
instructors in the production of surgical dressings. About twenty
cities sent representatives to take this course, among them Boston,
Philadelphia, Baltimore, Cincinnati, Richmond, Louisville, Atlanta,
and Charlottesville. Mrs. Blakeley Carter, who consented to represent
the local Chapter, took the intensive one-week course of instruction
and returned home with the alarming news that the local Chapter
was expected to make 17,000 dressings by the first of January,
1940. This quota was given to all participating chapters, regardless
of size, and to Albemarle at that time it seemed staggering. Four
years later, in April, 1944, 179,000 dressings were made in one
month!

Mrs. Carter, as chairman of the surgical dressings branch of the
Production Corps. went valiantly ahead to equip some rooms in the
County Office Building and to enroll and train volunteer workers.

By January the shipment was ready, and a few weeks later a Red
Cross representative from Poland wrote that boxes of surgical dressings
made by the Albemarle County Chapter were in use there. It
was very gratifying to know that this Chapter was one of the first
three in the entire United States to finish the first quota of 17,000
dressings and that it maintained its place in the lead for six months.
Albemarle County Chapter members were very proud and a bit
incredulous when visitors to New York City related that they had
seen signs there reading, “Help New York Beat Charlottesville and
Boston—Make Surgical Dressings.” In June, 1940, the first school
for instructors in the making of surgical dressings for Virginia and
adjoining states was held in Charlottesville, and the local Chapter
was proud that Mrs. Carter was selected as instructor.

Much later in the war, in July, 1944, the Chapter was thrilled
by news that medical supplies produced by local Red Cross workers
had been received in Italy by the 8th Evacuation Hospital, the medical
unit which had been recruited in the University of Virginia Hospital.
“We have just received a shipment of gauze and dressings
which we were surprised and delighted to find was prepared by the
Albemarle Chapter of the Red Cross,” Lieutenant Colonel E. C.
Drash, a local physician who was helping to save the lives of wounded
American servicemen, wrote in a letter to the local Chapter chairman.
“We have used a vast quantity of gauze, which came from Chapters
all over the United States. However, none of the previous shipments
gave us the thrill this did. We have concrete proof that the people
of Charlottesville and Albemarle County are really working to help
bring the war to a successful close. The dressings prepared there are
being used in the 8th Evacuation Hospital, now located just 3 miles
from the German lines, to bind up the wounds of American boys,
some of whom are from Virginia.”[1]

Throughout the year 1940 and a large part of 1941 most of the
Chapter's activities related to war were in the production field. Yet
the Chapter was still very active in civilian relief, giving aid of various
kinds to the ill and undernourished, supplying garments for the
needy, paying for glasses and for tonsillectomies for school children,
and providing corrective operations for adults when such operations
would enable them to support their families. Gradually, as war
responsibilities became greater, these services were taken over by other
organizations.

In the fall of 1940 Mrs. James Gordon Smith of Greenwood,
vice-chairman of the Chapter and chairman of its Volunteer Special
Services, was invited by Norman Davis, chairman of the American
Red Cross, and by Miss Mabel Boardman, chairman of the National
Committee of Volunteer Special Services, to become a member of the
National Committee. As this committee included representatives
from between thirty and forty of the more than 3,500 Chapters organized

throughout the United States, it was a signal honor for the
Albemarle County Chapter to be represented among the chosen few.

In May, 1941, Mrs. Smith was chosen to succeed John F. Faris,
who declined renomination, as chairman of the Albemarle County
Chapter and was herself succeeded as director of Volunteer Special
Services by Miss Mary Stamps White. By that time the necessity for
the continuing expansion of existing corps and the organization of
new ones was becoming more apparent every day. Miss White, with
various corps chairmen, went immediately to work.

The Motor Corps was required to have further training and practice
work. Earlier in 1941, under the chairmanship of Mrs. John
Maury, Jr., Motor Corps members were trained in simple motor
mechanics. Later that year, when Mrs. Maury moved away and Miss
Caroline Stuart became chairman, instruction in Standard and Advanced
First Aid, air raid precautions, map reading, and fire fighting
were added to the training, and members were also required to drill.
The idea of military drill was questioned by many and was a cause
of great amusement to a few, but it was felt by Chapter officials that
the discipline was important. No one knew what this group was
facing, and the habit of taking orders promptly might have proved
invaluable later. Incidentally, the local Motor Corps was the third
in the nation to initiate such drills, which before the end of the war
were required in all Red Cross chapters. When blackout drills were
held in 1942–1944, the Motor Corps was always on hand, fulfilling
difficult assignments with promptness and efficiency. On September
9, 1942, Miss Stuart left Charlottesville for a period of training near
Toronto, Canada, with the Canadian Women's Transport.

The Staff Assistance Corps was enlarged, and Mrs. Thomas S.
Englar became its chairman. More women took the required training,
and staff assistants became increasingly valuable as stenographers,
typists, clerks, and receptionists in Red Cross offices, in workrooms,
and in other civic and welfare organizations.

Both branches of Production, namely, Sewing and Knitting and
Surgical Dressings, were going full steam ahead. As very large quotas
continued to come in, the chief problem in both of these services was
to obtain more and more workers. The statistical report at the end
of this chapter shows how well this need was met.

A Home Service Corps was organized with Mrs. N. T. Hildreth
as chairman, in order to relieve Miss Beard of some necessary home
visits, thereby giving her more time for other duties.

The Canteen Corps, with Mrs. H. B. Mulholland as chairman,
was organized and trained. Classes were held under a volunteer
domestic science teacher, with special emphasis on mass feedings. This
corps soon started to acquire practical experience in many ways which
will be described later and which proved invaluable to the Chapter.

The Nurse's Aide Corps was also organized and trained. Miss

Elizabeth A. Nolting became its chairman. Many other Red Cross
Chapters had such units long before the war, but one did not seem to
be needed in Charlottesville until it became apparent that war was
coming and that the resulting exodus of nurses to the armed forces
would be seriously felt by the local hospitals. When it was decided
that the time had come to organize this corps, the Chapter hardly
knew where to start. The University Hospital was anxious to cooperate
in the training, and a nurse was available for teaching, but
how aides were to be procured was the question. Would there be
women sufficiently interested to give up their leisure time, to face the
hard work, sacrifice, and discipline which would be ahead of them?
Miss Mary Stamps White, Mrs. Edwin Burton, and Miss Nolting
went to work on recruitment, mostly by calling picked people on the
telephone. The result was that in November, 1941, the first class
went into training, and the day after Pearl Harbor twenty prospective
aides, having finished their thirty-five hours of lecture and practice
work, were in uniform ready to start their forty-five hours of preliminary
work in hospital wards. In January the first class was
graduated and started a service which proved invaluable, especially to
the badly understaffed hospitals. By September, 1943, eight classes,
aggregating approximately 185 workers, had been trained, and 140
active Nurse's Aides, pledged to give 150 hours or more of work per
year, were assisting in Charlottesville. Two years later the twelfth
Nurse's Aide class was graduated; ten women were then presented
with their caps and pins.[2]

When the Civilian Defense Council first came into the picture, its
relationship with the Red Cross was not at all clear. Everything was
moving so rapidly, and there were so many adjustments to be made,
that many Red Cross workers were bewildered, particularly when
faced with instructions which threatened confusing and wasteful
duplication. However, through the cooperation of all concerned, the
tangle was soon unravelled. Simplification of the problem was promoted
because the Red Cross Volunteer Special Services chairman
became also the executive secretary of Civilian Defense. After
Pearl Harbor enemy air raids were expected on Washington or on the
Atlantic Coast, and Charlottesville was designated as an evacuation
center. It soon became clear that the Civilian Defense organization
was to be in charge of relief operations in case of disaster due to enemy
action and was to remain in charge until the Army took over the
responsibility. All resources of the Red Cross were to be available.
but this organization's specific job would be to provide refugees with
food, clothing, and temporary shelter. Dr. Harvey E. Jordan, Dean
of the Medical School at the University of Virginia, was appointed
chief medical officer of the local Civilian Defense Council, and chairmen
of certain Red Cross services were included on his committee.
The personnel of the council and of the Red Cross cooperated closely,

and elaborate and detailed plans for relief were worked out. Much
credit goes to Sterling L. Williamson, chairman of the Disaster Preparedness
Committee of the Chapter, for his excellent job in mobilizing
Red Cross services for possible emergency. Under the Civilian
Defense disaster organization were aligned the following Red Cross
services: the Canteen Corps, which stood ready with available equipment
to feed as many as 1,500 refugees; the Staff Assistance Corps,
fifty-four of whom were specially trained to be in charge of registration
and information desks; the Motor Corps, which was prepared
to provide a large part of the necessary transportation to and from
any eastern city between Norfolk and Baltimore (besides the Red
Cross cars, privately owned station wagons, with stretchers and first
aid equipment, were to be available to the Motor Corps); the Nurse's
Aide Corps, which was prepared to assist trained nurses in emergency
assignments; a Clothing Committee composed of dry goods merchants
who had surveyed available supplies and were ready to furnish adequate
clothing on short notice; and a Shelter Committee, which had
arranged to house 700 people. It was understood that while the
above committees were to be available to the Civilian Defense Council
in case of enemy action, they would work under the Red Cross in
case of sabotage or natural disaster, as would also members of the
Civilian Defense medical squads.

Perhaps the greatest expansion of any of the Chapter committees
at that time was in the Committee on Safety Services. This committee
had been functioning for many years and was responsible for giving
instructions in first aid and in water safety. Under the leadership
of Arthur V. Englert, chairman from 1939 to 1941, Charlottesville
police, firemen, and hundreds of private citizens were instructed
in first aid, and large numbers of people received certificates
in water safety. When Englert moved away to live elsewhere and
was succeeded by Walter S. Crenshaw, there was a greater demand
for first aid instruction than ever before in Red Cross history. The
local Civilian Defense Council required it for all air raid wardens,
the Red Cross required it in certain services, and there was a clamor
among the general public for such training. Crenshaw and a large
group of instructors gave their time freely and generously, thereby
making an enormous contribution, not only to people individually
but also to all agencies cooperating in the protection of the home front.

The scarcity of doctors and nurses was being felt more and more
in the community, and the congestion in hospitals was very great.
In order to give a small measure of relief in this problem, the Red
Cross Home Nursing Committee, with Mrs. Mason S. Byrd as chairman,
and the Joint Health Department organized and provided instruction
for many classes in home nursing, hoping that thereby women
would learn to care more intelligently for the sick in their own
homes. Some of these classes, both white and Negro, were taught

by Mrs. Robert V. Funsten, Mrs. Fletcher Woodward, Mrs. John
G. Yancey, Mrs. Grace White, and Mrs. Annie White, who very
generously gave their time.[3] Later other volunteer trained nurses also
undertook the task of instruction. All rendered to the community a
service the magnitude of which cannot be measured. Certificates were
awarded to more than 656 graduates of this course.

With the many increased demands upon the Red Cross, the question
of working space was becoming very serious. Many suitable
rooms had been provided in the county for both branches of Production
and for First Aid and Home Nursing classes, but in Charlottesville
workrooms were becoming crowded and inadequate. Activities
in the city were scattered in thirteen different rooms, which had been
loaned by various organizations, and operations had become very difficult.
They would have necessarily been continued on a much restricted
basis had it not been for the Charlottesville City Council,
which, shortly after Pearl Harbor, voted to let the organization have
the use of the old Midway School building for the duration of the
war. Early in January, 1942, the Red Cross moved in, and a new
era in Chapter history began. Thereafter the local Chapter was never
hampered by lack of space, and that fact undoubtedly played a great
part in the record of achievement of the Albemarle County Chapter.

In December, 1941, Dr. Carlisle S. Lentz, Superintendent of the
University of Virginia Hospital, requested and obtained $1,000 from
the Red Cross, and later the same amounts from both Charlottesville
and Albemarle County, for the purchase of medical supplies to be
held in readiness for victims of air raids. The greater part of this
money was to be used for the establishment of a bank for liquid
blood plasma which, as it required refrigeration, could be used only
locally or in nearby places. This bank was to be operated by the hospital
staff but to belong to the Red Cross and to the county and city
governments.

The Civilian Defense Council assumed the responsibility of obtaining
donors and had general supervision over the project, but Red
Cross volunteers, particularly Staff Assistants, gave many hours of
work to help in assuring its success. This blood bank should not be
confused with the Red Cross Blood Donor Service, mobile units of
which visited this community during 1943–1945 to obtain donations
of blood to be converted into dried plasma for the United
States armed forces. Details of the cooperative Civilian Defense blood
bank have been discussed in the chapter on Civilian Defense.

Shortly before moving into Midway School, the Albemarle County
Chapter lost Miss Pauline Beard, who for six years had run the office,
attended to Home Service, promoted all activities in the Chapter, and,
incidentally, picked up all loose ends. Her departure to accept a
responsible position at Red Cross National Headquarters left the local
Chapter feeling very much “on its own.” However, her sister, Miss

Anne Beard, who replaced her, fitted very well into the position of
executive secretary, and Miss Helen Wilson proved very valuable as
her assistant.

After the Chapter had been functioning for several months in its
new quarters, demands for surgical dressings for our own armed forces
became greater and greater. Mrs. Carter and her cohorts began to
look with distress on their workers as they removed their uniforms
and departed every day at about half-past twelve. It occurred to
them that, if lunch were served in the building, the departing workers
might stay and give at least an hour's more time and perhaps two.
They appealed to the Canteen Corps, whose members not only responded
but also equipped and furnished a kitchen and dining room
in the basement. These rooms were transferred from spots of depressing
gloom into really cheerful gathering places. Lunches were served
five days each week to all Red Cross workers who wanted to stay.
These meals were uniformly good, showed originality and imagination,
and usually cost only twenty-five cents. While, theoretically,
the Canteen Corps was not supposed to make money, they made it in
spite of themselves and were able to make many notable contributions
with their profits. These luncheons will be remembered with pleasure
by many Red Cross workers. Not only did they serve their original
purpose of enticing many of the Surgical Dressing ladies to remain a
little longer, but they also proved to be excellent times for meetings,
were a great convenience to all workers at Midway, and undoubtedly
served a great purpose in promoting all Chapter services.

In the summer of 1942 some members of the Canteen Corps, under
the leadership of Mrs. Charlotte Gildersleeve, began to serve light
refreshments to traveling servicemen at the Chesapeake and Ohio Railway
station. This was not a Red Cross project at the time, but a
private enterprise of these ladies. Although they wanted it to come
officially under the Red Cross, the undertaking was not then smiled
upon by either the C. & O. Railway or the Red Cross Eastern Area
office, and it had to be discontinued for a while. However, these
women had demonstrated its worth, and the local Chapter became
very anxious to establish an official station canteen, since an enormous
number of servicemen en route to and from military or naval stations
along the Atlantic coast traveled on the C. & O., wartime railway
dining car facilities were inadequate, there were sometimes long waits
between trains, and, also, because the men who had been served by
Mrs. Gildersleeve's group had been very appreciative. Finally, after
much correspondence and many meetings, all difficulties were cleared.
The C. & O. Railway, managers of nearby restaurants, and the U. S.
O., which under national policy had priority in all proposals for
the establishment of station canteens, gave their unanimous approval.
This resulted in the consent of the Eastern Area of the American Red
Cross. The railroad not only approved, under certain proper conditions,

but also loaned for this use its former ticket office. This room
opened onto the platform and was ideal for the purpose. Mrs. Gildersleeve
was anxious to help but not to assume the responsibility,
so Mrs. Mulholland appointed Miss May Langhorne to direct the
station canteen. From a small beginning in October, 1942, this canteen
grew into an efficiently managed organization which met all
trains day and night, seven days a week, and dispensed to men and
women in military or naval uniform free coffee, cigarettes, doughnuts,
and cheer. The crowds of service personnel who eagerly gathered
around the canteen windows and the many letters of appreciation
received convinced the few doubters that this enterprise was a
morale builder of the first order. While the station canteen was in
operation, 156 women gave time totaling more than 13,442 hours
and served light refreshments to 307,592 service personnel. It was
closed on February 15, 1946.[4]

Late in 1942 and early in 1943 the local Chapter suffered an alarming
epidemic of losses. Miss Anne Beard, who had become Mrs.
Johnson Dennis, resigned as executive secretary and was replaced by
Miss Marjorie Shepherd, and a large number of Albemarle volunteers
were seized with the very natural desire to go into the armed
forces or Red Cross service overseas. Miss Mary Stamps White and
Miss Elizabeth Nolting were among those who went abroad with
the Red Cross, and Miss Caroline Stuart left with the same intention,
although later developments prevented her from going. It hardly
seemed possible that such excellent replacements as Mrs. Alfred Chanutin,
Mrs. John McGavock, and Mrs. Charles Merriman should
have been obtained as chairmen respectively of Volunteer Special
Services, the Motor Corps, and the Nurse's Aide Corps. They kept
up the excellent work of their predecessors, and all activities continued
to expand.

Early in 1943 the Army and Navy designated the Red Cross as
their official agent for the enrollment of nurses. Miss Virginia
Walker, Superintendent of Nurses at the University of Virginia Hospital,
became chairman of the local Nurse Recruitment Committee.
It had a rather large field, as the Albemarle County Chapter became
the nurse recruitment center of fifteen surrounding counties. Miss
Walker had been experiencing the difficulties which resulted from the
shortage of nurses at home, but she went gallantly to work, knowing
that Army needs were more serious. (The Navy's quotas were
not as large as the Army's and not so difficult to fill.) As a result of
Miss Walker's endeavors, seventy-three nurses were enrolled for the
armed forces. Fifty-nine of them served overseas.

In June, 1943, a mobile unit from the Red Cross Blood Donor
Service in Washington, D. C., made its first visit to Charlottesville,
and at last people of the community had the opportunity to give
their blood for conversion into dried plasma for shipment overseas.

Ruth Risher and Disney murals entertain soldiers in a snack bar in
Egypt.

Months earlier, the Albemarle County Chapter had asked to be included
in the itinerary of this service but had been assured that Charlottesville
was too far distant. The local Chapter was not happy
about the situation, and this feeling was intensified by General Vandegrift's
visit. Early that year, Robert E. Taylor, chairman of the
local 1943 Red Cross War Fund Campaign, invited Major General
A. A. Vandegrift of the United States Marine Corps, a native of
Charlottesville, to come and open the local drive, and the community
was greatly thrilled and honored when he accepted. The General had
just returned from active duty in the South Pacific, and what he said
about the important part blood plasma was playing in saving the
lives of wounded men made many people here more than ever eager
to give their blood. As it happened, the community did not have
to wait very long. No doubt the critical status of the battlefront at
that time and the urgent need for plasma caused the directors of this
Washington service to relent. In May they sent a representative to
help the local Red Cross Chapter to organize a blood donor center in
Charlottesville. Mrs. Staige D. Blackford became chairman and
formed an organization which developed great efficiency. The University
Baptist Church provided adequate space. Donors were obtained
through the newspapers, by radio, and by personal solicitation.
When the Mobile Blood Donor Service unit arrived, necessary equipment
and volunteer workers were on hand, and the local quota of
160 pints of blood a day for three days was met. The unit and its
skillful and cooperative personnel came back to Charlottesville approximately
every other month for four-day periods through June,
1945. The visit scheduled for August of that year was cancelled
because the Japanese had begun their peace overtures. In the winter
of 1944 the location was changed to the Methodist Church, which
was more convenient to most donors, and twice that year the unit
made trips to Scottsville also. In order to protect the donors, physical
requirements were very rigid, and even with good preliminary
work the committee had always to count on a number of rejections
of persons who were willing but not able to spare some of their blood.
Substitutes stood by, however, and usually the maximum daily quota
was met.

Residents of Charlottesville and Albemarle County, together with
occasional delegations from other counties and students of the University
of Virginia, proved to be generous blood donors. In recognition
of their first pint of blood, donors received bronze buttons,
which were to be exchanged for silver buttons after their third donation
and for gold buttons after their fourth donation. An example
of their faithfulness is to be found in the fact that in January, 1945,
514 out of 582 persons offering blood were previous donors.[5] Fifteen
employees of the Charlottesville post office volunteered to give
blood, as did more than 200 students, including the entire membership

of the local chapter of the Sigma Chi Fraternity. All told, 6,404
pints of blood were collected in Charlottesville from volunteer donors,
seventy of whom became members of the Gallon Club, having contributed
one gallon or more of blood. Two Charlottesville mothers,
Mrs, W. L. Lacey and Mrs. W. H. Smick, Sr., celebrated their sons'
birthdays in February, 1944, by gifts of blood. Mrs. Lauris Norstad,
wife of one of the younger generals of the Army Air Corps
serving in Italy, Mrs. J. E. Bell, and Nat R. Martin became charter
members of the local Gallon Club. Staff Sergeant Robert V. Smith
of Charlottesville, who had assisted the previous January in the first
plasma transfusion ever attempted aboard a B-25 bomber, made a
donation on October 13, 1944. The mobile unit of the Blood Donor
Service happened to be in Charlottesville on D-Day, June 6, 1944.
When the news of landings on the beachheads of Normandy came, a
large number of people without appointments appeared and offered
to give blood. Many of these had to be turned away, as there was
not sufficient equipment to accommodate all of the would-be donors.[6]

Early in 1945 Mrs. William H. Laird became co-chairman of the
committee in charge of this service locally, and she, Mrs. Blackford,
and their committee did an outstandingly good job. They were ably
assisted by local volunteer nurses, as well as members of the Nurse's
Aide, Canteen, Staff Assistance, and Motor Corps. Without all these,
according to Mrs. Blackford, “we could never have succeeded.”

In October, 1943, the Camp and Hospital Committee was organized.
This committee was composed of about forty people, representatives
of practically all civic and patriotic organizations in the
community. Its purpose was to serve as a channel through which
interested groups and individuals could contribute to the comfort and
pleasure of the armed forces, particularly to that of the patients of
the Woodrow Wilson General Hospital near Staunton, Virginia.
This was in keeping with the general policy of the Army and Navy
that such services should be channeled through the Red Cross. The
Motor Corps made weekly trips to the hospital from the time it was
opened in June, 1943, through March, 1946, carrying workers of
this committee, personnel of other Red Cross services, and groups of
entertainers from other community organizations. Many gifts were
made and uncounted entertainments arranged for the men at the
Woodrow Wilson Hospital, and a much appreciated garden project
was sponsored and beautifully carried out there by Mrs. Theodore
Hough. This committee also arranged for the entertainment in Charlottesville
of groups of men from Camp Pickett and from the Woodrow
Wilson Hospital. Luncheon was served to these visiting servicemen
by the Canteen Corps, sometimes in the Midway School dining
room and sometimes on the grounds of Monticello. The committee
also furnished eight sun rooms and gave 1,006 stockings or other
containers filled with Christmas presents to soldiers at the Woodrow

Wilson Hospital. In addition, it provided recreational and other
equipment for the use of American guards at the White Hall Prison
Camp. Robert E. Taylor, Miss Jennette Rustin, and Miss Nan Crow
served successively as chairmen of the group.[7]

Throughout the war the Disaster Preparedness Committee was
ready and waiting to go into action, but its services were needed in
only one major instance. Then it responded so quickly and efficiently
that the Chapter received a letter of commendation from the Eastern
Area office of the Red Cross. On Sunday morning, September 26,
1943, a trainload of German prisoners was wrecked near Shadwell.
The engineer and the fireman were both killed. Fifteen others, including
both prisoners and their guards, were injured. The Red Cross
ambulance with first aid equipment reached the scene promptly. Red
Cross stretchers proved particularly useful, because the wheeled
stretchers of commercial ambulances could not be used on the steep
hillside. The Motor Corps helped with the transportation of the
wounded. Although it was Sunday morning, Mrs. Mulholland and
members of the Canteen Corps were able to comply with the request
of the commanding officer for lunch. In about an hour they were
on the scene with 1,200 sandwiches, coffee, fruit, and water, which
they dispensed from behind a fence, as they were not allowed to
approach the prisoners.[8]

By 1944 calls for Home Service were increasing to such an extent
that they tended to overshadow everything else in the executive
office of the local Chapter. To fulfill these calls is a charter responsibility
of the Red Cross, and, of course, must be done. Mrs. N.
T. Hildreth had moved away, and Mrs. Mason Byrd had assumed
the chairmanship of the Home Service Corps. Under her leadership
a group of eight specially selected women was given a fifty-hour
training course by Miss Marjorie Shepherd, and they were certified
as Home Service volunteers. Most of these and nine others subsequently
trained remained in the corps and proved invaluable
throughout the strenuous days ahead. At Miss Shepherd's request
a Home Service Advisory Committee was organized with the Reverend
Dudley A. Boogher, rector of St. Paul's Episcopal Church at
Ivy, as its chairman. It met regularly, and the advice and suggestions
of its members were of great benefit to the executive office.

In the summer of 1944 Miss Shepherd, on the advice of her physician,
resigned. For several months the Chapter was without an
Executive Secretary. However, Miss Helen Wilson, who had served
as assistant to both Miss Shepherd and her predecessor, Mrs. Fenner
Baker, the office secretary, the Home Service Corps, and the Staff
Assistants Corps stood manfully by, and before long the Chapter
obtained in the executive secretaryship the services of Mrs. Albert
Wright, who held this position throughout the remainder of the
war. By 1944 it was obvious that the Executive Secretary and the

chairman of the Home Service Committee should be distinct, and
after Mrs. Wright assumed her duties the separation took place,
with Miss Wilson installed in quarters across the hall as Home
Service Secretary. The result was much less confusion and more
time for the Executive Secretary to give to other services.

However, even then, but for the assistance of the Home Service volunteers
in making visits, in taking office calls, and in proving themselves
generally useful, twenty-four hours a day would have been
insufficient to permit the staff to attend to its large volume of work.
As more and more of our men were made prisoners of war, it was
thought advisable to have in the Home Service office someone who
specialized in that subject. Mrs. Page Nelson, a recent addition to
the staff, became the Chapter's specialist on information about prisoners
of war. The fact that her own son was a prisoner in Germany
made her interest in the subject particularly vital; and her understanding
of what information and service a family in similar
circumstances might want was very keen. Local Red Cross workers
realized that they could not maintain the right kind of Home Service
department if they became cut and dried and too efficiently scheduled.
Of course requests from the Army and Navy and other legitimate
calls for aid had to be handled with dispatch, even when they
involved long drives over almost impassable roads or long walks
if the roads were impassable; and workers knew very well that Home
Service had to be available night and day, including Sundays. But
the workers also understood that human kindness is more important
than schedules. Through the war years relatives of servicemen of
all walks of life, representing all degrees of intelligence, were constantly
in the office, wanting help, information, and encouragement.
No one ever begrudged the time they took. Sometimes requests were
made which could not be granted, but even then the aim was to give
time and thought to helping each person with his problem and to
have him leave happier and more satisfied than when he arrived.[9]

In 1945 Dr. David C. Wilson, head of the Department of Psychiatry
at the University of Virginia Hospital, told the other members
of the Home Service Advisory Committee that many veterans
who had been discharged from the armed forces were in a bewildered
state of mind and needed a little help to enable them
to face life. These men were not sick enough to be committed to
mental hospitals, but they were on the borderline and might become
so. He offered to hold a clinic at some place other than the hospital
and said that he and members of his staff would volunteer their
services, but he added that he would like to have a part-time secretary,
a case worker, and a place in which the clinics could be held.
All of these were provided by the Red Cross. At first, Mrs. Lewis
K. Underhill, one of the Home Service volunteers, served as case
worker, and afterwards Miss Helen Neve, who had recently joined

the staff, worked in that capacity. A total of 206 patients were seen
at the clinic. As Dr. Wilson said when this work had been completed,
“The Red Cross performed a social service here of no small
proportion. Undoubtedly a large number of these men would have
become chronic invalids if not handled immediately.” This clinic
was operated from March, 1945, until August, 1946, at which time
the work was so well covered by the Veterans Administration that
Dr. Wilson's clinic ceased to be necessary. The Albemarle County
Chapter of the Red Cross was very grateful to have been able to
help, but to Dr. Wilson himself must go the credit for meeting
what he termed “this community emergency.”[10]

In 1945 the Chapter organized for the first time a Hospital and
Recreation Corps, commonly called “Gray Ladies” on account of
their uniforms. This corps was formed in response to a request for
that service from military authorities at the Woodrow Wilson General
Hospital, and it was trained there. Under the chairmanship of Mrs.
Charles Barham, Jr., fifteen “Gray Ladies” helped social and recreational
workers, manned the information desk in the Red Cross Building,
helped with the interior decoration of sun rooms, and generally
spread good cheer in that institution dedicated to the repair and
healing of wounded or sick soldiers. They served there until the
hospital closed in 1946, and none of them seemed to mind the
seventy miles which they traveled frequently to render this service.[11]

The Public Relations Committee performed an important service
in reporting Red Cross activities to the nine or ten thousand members
of the Chapter and to the public at large. In addition, it thereby
did much to maintain the excellent relationship which always existed
between the Chapter and the community. This was made possible
by the unfailing cooperation of the local newspapers, radio station,
and theatres. In 1942 a mimeographed news report was distributed
to workers every month. Publication of an interesting quarterly
magazine, the Albemarle County Chapter News, was begun in 1944
but was discontinued after the Japanese surrender the next year,
when wartime demands upon the chapter began to become less pressing.[12]
Mrs. Atcheson L. Hench, Mrs. Alfred Chanutin, and Mrs.
Stuart Clement served as successive chairmen of this committee during
the war years.

The Red Cross Roll Call and War Fund Committees raised vast
sums of money which, of course, played an essential part in Red
Cross work with the armed forces, in relief at home and abroad,
and in local Chapter activities. Obtaining the requested quota was
never an easy undertaking, but the quotas were always oversubscribed
because the drive chairmen and their unfaltering solicitors organized
and prosecuted the campaigns efficiently. In their efforts they enjoyed
the influential cooperation of the radio station, newspapers,
business firms, and civic organizations, and they received generous

responses from public spirited citizens.[13] Particularly noteworthy
was the speech with which Major General Alexander Archer Vandegrift
opened the War Fund drive in 1943. At a time when battlefront
conditions were still fresh in the memory of this commander
of the victorious Marines on Guadalcanal, he assured an admiring
audience which filled the Lane High School auditorium that the
“Red Cross performed wonderful service for my men in the Solomons.
It is worthy of all the support you can give it.”[14]

During these years the Junior Red Cross was doing much to live
up to its pledge, “We believe in service to others, for our country,
our community, and our school, in health of mind and body to fit
us for greater service and for better human relationships throughout
the world. We have joined the American Junior Red Cross to help
achieve its aims by working together with its members everywhere
in our own and other lands.” Mrs. John Gilmore and Mrs. Charles
Henderson were successively the local Junior Red Cross chairmen
during the war years. Under their leadership the Junior Red Cross
grew and developed until almost the whole school population of
Charlottesville and Albemarle County were members, either through
contributions of money, however small, or by performance of some
service. The Juniors made, or otherwise provided, thousands of
useful gifts for children in this country and abroad, nor did they
overlook the needs of servicemen in hospitals. They gave regularly
to the National Children's Fund, which has been maintained since
1919 through voluntary subscriptions of Junior members for the
purpose of helping to meet emergency needs of boys and girls
throughout the world. They also assisted in war bond sales, in Red
Cross drives, in the enlistment of pledges for the Blood Donor Service,
and in many other useful activities.[15]

Throughout the war the American Red Cross put great emphasis
on the necessity of classes in nutrition. Food supplies were restricted,
and no one knew how much more limited they would become. Consequently,
teaching women to feed their families to better advantage
on more abundant foods was another timely Red Cross service.
Under the leadership of the local Nutrition Committee many women
learned culinary fundamentals and wartime adaptations of basic
menus. Certificates were issued to 572 graduates of nutrition classes
during the two years of 1942–1944 in which Mrs. L. B. Snoddy
was chairman of this committee. Under the chairmanship of her
successors, Mrs. L. P. Edwards and Mrs. Frank Burnley, the special
emphasis of the Nutrition Committee was on the lunch program for
undernourished children in the county schools, the funds for which
had for several years been appropriated by the Child Welfare Association
and administered by the executive office and the Staff Assistance
Corps of the Red Cross. In 1944 the Nutrition Committee
took over the management of this program. It gave special attention

to planning menus which were both balanced and feasible under
conditions existing in the county schools.

Most of the committees and corps of the local Red Cross can report
tangible results in their own respective projects, but from this
viewpoint the Staff Assistance Corps is unique. It had no exclusive
function of its own, but it contributed immeasurably to the success
of all other subdivisions of the Chapter. Each of these recognizes its
own distinctive debt of gratitude to members of the corps and to Mrs.
Thomas S. Englar, Mrs. Harry L. Smith, and Mrs. Raymond Hunt,
its wartime chairmen.[16]

It would not be fitting to close this review of wartime services
which were, in the aggregate, truly amazing, without a tribute to
the salaried staff and the volunteer workers of the local Red Cross
organization. The Albemarle County Chapter in wartime was a
big organization. Its staff never exceeded five, but it enlisted more
than 3,000 volunteers. Within seven years after the outbreak of
the war in Europe over half a million recorded hours of service were
given by members of the Volunteer Special Service Corps, and this
figure may tell only half the story. It excludes many tens of thousands
of hours of Volunteer Special Service work—hours which were
freely given but which went unrecorded because people were more
concerned about getting their jobs done than they were about getting
all possible credit. Nor does this figure include the vast expenditures
of time donated to Red Cross activities by Chapter officers, members
of permanent committees, the Junior Red Cross, instructors, and
Roll Call or War Fund solicitors. The Chapter has every reason to
be proud of the wonderful spirit with which everyone worked together.
The few little human frictions which arose were so small
and so easily adjusted as not to be noteworthy. The prevailing
harmony in a large and cooperative membership was characterized
by the unselfish devotion of the workers of the Albemarle County
Chapter, their usual desire to do more than their part, and their large
measure of understanding of the Red Cross ideals of service to
humanity without regard for race, color, or creed.

A Tabular Summary of the Organization and Work of the Albemarle
County Chapter, American Red Cross,
September, 1939—September, 1945

OFFICERS

                                     

Dr. P. B. Barringer, Honorary Chairman	until his death in 1941
John F. Faris, Chairman	1938–1941
Mrs. James Gordon Smith, Chairman	1941–
Llewellyn Miller, Vice Chairman	1939–1941
Mrs. James Gordon Smith, Vice Chairman	1939–1941
Robert Coles, Vice Chairman	1941–1942
John F. Faris, Vice Chairman	1941–1942
Clair F. Cassell, Vice Chairman	1942–1945
Sterling L. Williamson, Vice Chairman	1942–1943
Robert E. Taylor, Vice Chairman	1943–
Hunter Perry, Vice Chairman	1945–
Mrs. Francis C. Morgan, Secretary	1939–1942
John F. Faris, Secretary	1942–1945
Mrs. Francis C. Morgan, Secretary	1945–
Charles T. O'Neill, Treasurer	1939–
Miss Pauline Beard, Executive Secretary	1939–1941
Miss Anne Beard (Mrs. Johnson Dennis), Executive Secretary	1941–1943
Miss Marjorie Shepherd, Executive Secretary	1943–1944
Mrs. Albert Wright, Executive Secretary	1944–1945

STANDING COMMITTEES

Home Service

       

Miss Pauline Beard, Home Service Secretary	1939–1941
Miss Anne Beard (Mrs. Johnson Dennis), Home Service Secretary	1941–1943
Miss Marjorie Shepherd, Home Service Secretary	1943–1944
Miss Helen Wilson, Home Service Secretary	1944–

Services Rendered by the Committee

         

To Army personnel	7,868
To Navy personnel	2,717
To veterans	2,307
To civilians	455
Fulfilled requests from Army and Navy officials for reports and information	6,317

Disaster Preparedness

   

Sterling L. Williamson, Chairman	1939–1943; 1944–
W. A. Barksdale, Chairman	1943–1944

Home Nursing

     

Mrs. Mason S. Byrd, Chairman	1942–1943
Mrs. J. Fred Harlan, Chairman	1943–1944
Mrs. Austin Kilham, Chairman	1944–

Safety Services

   

Walter S. Crenshaw, Chairman	1939–
Mrs. J. H. Whiteman, Co-Chairman	1944–

         

First Aid instructors trained	213
First Aid instructors active	84
First Aid certificates issued	7,890
Swimming certificates issued	267
Life Saving certificates issued	426

Nurse Recruitment

 

Miss Virginia Walker, Chairman

1943–

Nutrition

     

Mrs. L. B. Snoddy, Chairman	1942–1944
Mrs. L. P. Edwards, Chairman	1944–1945
Mrs. Frank Burnley, Chairman	1945–

Blood Donor Service

   

Mrs. Staige D. Blackford, Chairman	1943–1945
Mrs. William H. Laird, Co-Chairman	1945–

Camp and Hospital

     

Robert E. Taylor, Chairman	1943–1944
Miss Jennette Rustin, Chairman	1944–1945
Miss Nan Crow, Chairman	1945–

Roll Call and War Fund

               

Llewellyn Miller, Chairman	Autumn, 1939, Roll Call	$ 7,061.63
Robert Coles, Chairman	Autumn, 1940, Roll Call	$ 8,512.62
Letters mailed from office	Winter, 1941, Special War Relief Fund	$ 6,891.73
Clair Cassell, Chairman	Autumn, 1941, Roll Call	$10,737.28
William S. Hildreth, Chairman	Winter, 1942, War Fund	$15,993.21
Robert E. Taylor, Chairman	March, 1943, War Fund	$38,069.65
Hunter Perry, Chairman	March, 1944, War Fund	$58,264.57
W. F. Souder, Chairman	March, 1945, War Fund	$68,045.00

Junior Red Cross

   

Mrs. John A. Gilmore, Chairman	1939–1944
Mrs. Charles Henderson, Chairman	1944–1945

VOLUNTEER SPECIAL SERVICE CORPS

     

Mrs. James Gordon Smith, Chairman	1939–1941
Miss Mary Stamps White, Chairman	1941–1942
Mrs. Alfred Chanutin, Chairman	1942–

Production Corps—Sewing and Knitting

           

Mrs. Isaac Walters, Chairman	1939–
Number of workers	929
Hospital and foreign war relief garments sewn	30,982
Knitted garments for United States armed forces and for foreign war relief	14,784
Kit bags for United States servicemen	2,999
Miscellaneous comfort articles	11,176

Workrooms:
Midway School, Charlottesville

         

Westminster Presbyterian Church, Charlottesville
Carter's Bridge		Ivy
Covesville		Keswick
Greenwood		Proffit
	Scottsville

Production Corps—Surgical Dressings

     

Mrs. Blakeley Carter, Chairman	1939–
Number of workers	2,498
Surgical dressings made	5,687,430

Workrooms:
Midway School, Charlottesville

               

Batesville	Ivy
Crozet	Keswick
Esmont	Miller School
Farmington	Red Hill
Free Union	St. John's Mission
Greenwood	Scottsville
Holy Cross Mission	Stony Point
Howardsville	White Hall

Braille Corps

     

Miss Mary Harris, Chairman	1939–1942
Pages of reading matter transcribed for the blind	2,335
(This service was discontinued by the American Red Cross in June, 1942.)

Motor Corps

       

Miss Mary Stamps White, Chairman	1939–1940
Mrs. John Maury, Jr., Chairman	1940–1941
Miss Caroline Stuart, Chairman	1941–1943
Mrs. John F. McGavock, Chairman	1943–

Nurse's Aide Corps

     

Miss Elizabeth Nolting, Chairman	1941–1943
Mrs. Charles Merriman, Chairman	1943–
Mrs. John Chadwick, Co-Chairman	1945–

Staff Assistance Corps

                             

Mrs. Blakeley Carter, Chairman	1939–1941
Mrs. Thomas S. Englar, Chairman	1941–1943
Mrs. Harry L. Smith, Chairman	1943–1944
Mrs. Raymond Hunt, Chairman	1944–
Number of workers certified	69
Hours of work given	more than 27,785
Agencies assisted:
All Red Cross services
City and county ration boards
Ration boards' price panels
Rent control office
Selective Service boards
Civilian Defense Council
Joint Health Department
Hospitals and clinics

Canteen Corps

     

Mrs. H. B. Mulholland, Chairman	1941–
Miss May Langhorne, Chairman for the C. & O. Canteen	1943–1946
Number of workers trained and certified	100

Home Service Corps

   

Mrs. N. T. Hildreth, Chairman	1941–1942
Mrs. Mason S. Byrd, Chairman	1944–

Hospital and Recreation Corps (Gray Ladies)

 

Mrs. Charles Barham, Jr., Chairman

1945–

RESIDENTS OF CHARLOTTESVILLE AND ALBEMARLE COUNTY
WHO BECAME RED CROSS WORKERS SERVING WITH
THE ARMED FORCES OVERSEAS

(Note: This list is appended, upon request, as a matter of interest
only. The recruitment of Red Cross workers for overseas duty was
not a function of the Albemarle County Chapter. This list is
probably incomplete.)

     
                 

Miss Patricia G. Balz (Mrs. Patrick Vincent)	Staff assistant in service clubs in India
Miss Gertrude Haugan	A secretary with the Red Cross in the Philippine Islands
James F. Jones	Field Director in Puerto Rico
Miss Katherine Marshall	Served with a Clubmobile in England and behind the lines in France, Belgium, and Germany
Miss Muriel McMurdo	Staff assistant in north central Australia and in Leyte
Edward Newman, Jr.	Club director in India
Miss Elizabeth Nolting	Hospital recreation worker in India and China
Miss Ruth Risher (Mrs. John Wheeler-Bennett)	Director of service clubs in Egypt
Miss Harriet B. Sage (Mrs. E. Allen Drew)	Hospital recreation worker in New Caledonia
Miss Lucy Shields	Served in Africa and Sardinia
C. C. Wells	Assistant Field Director at Hawaii and for the Seventh Air Force at Oahu; Field Director at Saipan and Pelelieu
Miss Mary Stamps White	Staff assistant in service club in Edinburg, Scotland; Assistant Director and Acting Director of service club in Northampton, England; in September, 1944, became Assistant Director and later Director of the Columbia Club in Paris; awarded the Army Bronze Star for outstanding merit