I was typing up some of my notes and just realized today is the anniversary of this woman’s birthday. This is Genevieve Sullivan, born February 19, 1917. She was born in Waterloo, Iowa, the third of six siblings and the only girl. Two of her brothers were already serving in the Navy in 1941, as was her boyfriend, Bill Ball. Bill was stationed at Pearl Harbor, and was killed in the Japanese attack on December 7, 1941.
After Bill’s death, her three remaining brothers also joined the Navy. The brothers requested that they all serve together, and they were assigned to the USS Juneau. Genevieve toyed with the idea of joining the women’s branch of the Navy, known as the WAVES (Women Accepted for Voluntary Emergency Service); she exchanged a few letters with her brothers, seeking their advice, and they encouraged her to sign up.
Then, in January of 1943, the Juneau was torpedoed. It sank, and all five Sullivan brothers were killed. Their story received nationwide attention. It was was covered in newspapers across the country, inspired a 1944 movie called The Fighting Sullivans (Trudy Marshall was cast as Genevieve), and led to the creation of a policy wherein individuals would be excused from service if they had lost a family member. Genevieve and her parents ran war bond drives and traveled around the country to drum up support for the war.
In April of 1943, Genevieve took the oath of enlistment and joined the Navy. She served until 1946, and passed away in 1975, just a few days shy of her 58th birthday.
