Title	[Portrait of Sherley Mae White]
Date	1944
Subject headings	World War, 1939-1945 United States. Coast Guard
Era	World War II era (1940-1946)
Service branch	Coast Guard--SPARS
Item description	Sherley Mae White, drum major, is seen here posing for the SPAR Band in her enlisted personnel service dress uniform, in Palm Beach, Florida in 1944. On her left sleeve is one service stripe, indicating four years of active service in the United States Coast Guard.
Veteran's name	White, Sherley Mae
Veteran's biography	Sherley Mae White (1923-2014) served in the Women's Reserve of the Coast Guard (SPARs) from 1943-1945. She served as a drum major for the SPARS marching band at the Biltmore Training Station in Palm Beach, Florida. She later transferred to the Coast Guard Base in Ketchikan, Alaska . White was born on 18 May 1923 and raised in Fort Wayne, Indiana.The Women's Reserve of the Coast Guard (SPARS) accepted her for service on 25 May 1943, and subsequently sent her for initial Boat Training at the U.S. Coast Guard Training Station, in Palm Beach, Florida. The SPARS promoted White to Seaman Second Class after she completed training. White remained at Palm Beach Training Station and performed duties with the SPARS marching band as band major. She also played clarinet and oboe. She was promoted to Boatswain’s Mate Second Class on 22 March 1945. The Coast Guard closed down Palm Beach Training Station in spring of 1945, and White departed on 10 April 1945 with orders for duty at the Coast Guard Station at Ketchikan, Alaska. After leave and in-processing in Washington State, she arrived on 19 May 1945. On 28 August 1945, White was promoted to Boatswain’s Mate First Class, the rank she held until separation. After the war ended, White departed Alaska on 14 November 1945 for discharge at St. Louis, MO." After her service she earned a B.A. in English from Mills College in Oakland, California in 1950. She later worked for the Girl Scouts of the USA, as a fundraiser for the Crippled Children Society in Chapel Hill, North Carolina, as an alderman in Elon, North Carolina, and at the library at Elon Unversity.
Place	Palm Beach (Fla.)
Type	image
Original format	photographs
Image type	Full uniform
Original publisher	[Place of publication not identified] : [publisher not identified]
Contributing institution	Martha Blakeney Hodges Special Collections and University Archives, UNCG University Libraries
Source collection	WV0485 Sherley Mae White Papers
Collection summary	May 2010 oral history interview, a scrapbook about her time in service in Palm Beach, Florida and another scrapbook about her time the Coast Guard Base in Ketchikan, Alaska, insignia, patches, medals, ribbons, newspapers, 2 copies of newspaper The Bowsprit. photographs, correspondence, souvenirs, sketches, and military papers.
Finding aid link	http://libapps.uncg.edu/archon/?p=collections/controlcard&id=786
Rights statement	http://rightsstatements.org/vocab/InC/1.0/
Additional rights information	IN COPYRIGHT. This item is subject to copyright. Contact the rights holder noted above for permission to reuse.
Object ID	WV0485.6.002
Digital publisher	The University of North Carolina at Greensboro, University Libraries, PO Box 26170, Greensboro NC 27402-6170, 336.334.5304 -- http://library.uncg.edu/
OCLC number	900815253

[Portrait of Sherley Mae White]

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