Louise Nash Dorsett Collection
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Louise Nash Dorsett
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Louise Nash Dorsett stands in front of a tree wearing a WAVES officer dress blue uniform and garrison cap in spring of 1945.
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Oral history interview with Louise Nash Dorsett
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Documents Louise Nash Dorsett's early life; her service with the U.S. Navy WAVES (Women Accepted for Volunteer Emergency Service) from 1942 to 1945; and her life after World War II. Dorsett recalls her early life during the Depression and her education, particularly her years at the Woman's College of the University of North Carolina (now the University of North Carolina at Greensboro) in the early 1930s. She describes social activities; life on campus; the impact of the Depression on the campus; the class of men that were admitted in 1933-34; and various campus personalities, including Harriett Elliott, Clara Booth Byrd, Katherine Taylor, and Julius Foust. Dorsett discusses her reasons for joining the military in October 1942 and why she chose the navy, including her desire for equal pay for equal work. She also speaks about knowing the man that she freed for combat; taking men's jobs; the attitudes of men toward women in the service; and working with male officers. Dorsett briefly describes her basic training at Mount Holyoke College in South Hadley, Massachusetts, in late 1942 and her administrative work for the Bureau of Ships in Washington, D.C., from 1943 to 1945. Topics include personnel issues such as promotions and demotions; prominent military personnel; and Dorsett's life and living arrangements in Washington. Personal topics include getting permission to go to New York to get married before her fiancé went overseas; the transition to civilian life that she and her husband faced after the war; and her jobs as a social worker and high school history teacher.
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Portrait of Louise Nash Dorsett
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Formal headshot of Louise N. Dorsett, taken while she was stationed at the Bureau of Ships in Washington, DC, in the spring of 1943.
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WAVES blue winter uniform
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WAVES officer's dress blue winter uniform with tailored navy blue wool blouse with distinctive rounded collar with WAVES insignia, four gold buttons, and two reserve blue cuff stripes. Worn with white shirtwaist and black seaman's tie and navy blue six-gore skirt with left side zipper and button. Uniforms worn by WAVES were identical to those worn by SPARs except for insignia and labels. This uniform worn by Louise Nash Dorsett from 1944 to 1946.
