Peirce, Ruth Thompson, 1911-1994.

Peirce, a native of Boston, Mass., was recruited by the FBI in 1941 to work as an undercover agent. She joined the Women's Army Corps in August 1942 and was one of the first women intercept operators for the Boston Intercept Command. She was later stationed as a flight dispatcher in Bangor, Me., and Mitchell Air Force Base, Long Island, N.Y., was discharged from the military in 1945. She worked for a time for Catherine E. Falvey, a lawyer and fellow WAC who was a member of the Massachusetts House of Representatives (1941-44).

In 1948, she married John Peirce, an Air Force officer. From 1953 to 1956 they lived outside Casablanca, Morocco, where he was stationed. Returning to the United States, the Peirces lived near Air Force bases in New Jersey, Texas, and Massachusetts. In 1963, the couple settled in Brookline, Mass.; they separated in 1970 and divorced in 1975. Ruth Peirce died in 1994. Throughout her life she retained an avid interest in women in the military, collecting clippings and other information on the subject.