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The year 1912, when the Titanic sank in the North Atlantic Ocean, Fern “Elizabeth” Brown was born.  Elizabeth was truly unsinkable, radiating strength, positivity, and light that lifted those around her.  When the army ran the WAAC advertisement, she left the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) and heeded the call to serve.  Friends and coworkers threw a party for her and gave pop-up cards and a five-year diary.  Corporal Brown wrote in her diary daily and to friends and family once stationed at Ft. Oglethorpe and later Will Rogers Field.  The Army sent her to Reims, France.   She was present when Germany negotiated for peace with allied forces.  She kept her WAAC songbook, army pass, Athena button, and training manual as keepsakes.  In 1946, Brown returned to Springfield and worked for the IRS until 1974 when she retired.

Bubbly Springfield Lady

Gifted by Mary Brown Link

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In 1899, Springfield, Illinois’s African American community was prospering, despite Jim Crow laws and racial segregation.  It was this year that Lucille “Marie” Tucker Sublett is born.  Her mother Mattie Tucker ran a Milner/Antique shop where Marie worked, and the family prospered.  She was also highly involved in many community-focused social clubs like the James Weldon Johnson Literary Guild (JWJG), where she is pictured above seated in the center.  As President of the JWJG from 1941 - 42, she worked with the Urban League and YWCA.  Though her community work was interrupted in 1942 when Sublett joined the Women’s Army Auxiliary Corps.  She communicated with her JWJG friends through post cards and letters, seen here, detailing life as a WAAC.  Marie continued in her military career after World War II by joining the Air Force.  Sublett was a Tech Sergeant until her death in 1953.

Community Conscious Club Woman

Images loaned by Michia Guy Casebier

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