Veasey, Millie Dunn, 1918-2018

When Millie Dunn stepped off the train in Scotland in early 1945, in her mid-20s and having until recently never been beyond her native North Carolina, it was a culture shock. Mostly for the Scottish.
“They had never seen any black persons, I don’t guess, because they thought that we were women in Technicolor,” she recalled more than a half-century later in an oral history. “They said, ‘Oh, look at the women in Technicolor.’ Oh, dear, dear, dear. Those people at that time.”

Ms. Dunn — who would become Millie Dunn Veasey when she married a few years later — was part of the Central Postal Directory Battalion of the Women’s Army Corps, an all-black, all-female unit bound for assignment in Birmingham, England, in the final year of World War II. It was the only all-black Women’s Army Corps unit to serve overseas.


The battalion — the 6888th, just over 800 women strong — did not have a particularly glamorous assignment. It was tasked with alleviating a huge backlog of mail that had accumulated there, intended for American servicemen. Getting that mail distributed, though, was considered important to keeping up the spirits of the men on the front lines.

Ms. Veasey, one of the last surviving members of the battalion, died on March 9 in Raleigh, N.C., a few weeks past her 100th birthday. Her death was announced by the Haywood Funeral Home in Raleigh.

After serving in the military, Ms. Veasey had a long career at her alma mater in Raleigh, what is now St. Augustine’s University, and became involved in the local branch of the N.A.A.C.P., serving as its president in the mid-1960s.

Millie Louise Dunn was born in Raleigh on Jan. 31, 1918, one of six children. She graduated from Washington High School there and then worked briefly for the county extension service before telling her family that she wanted to enlist.

Her mother, she later said, was skeptical because Millie was small and had not been healthy as a child. But she volunteered in late 1942, took the written and physical entrance examinations at Fort Bragg, N.C., in early 1943 and soon found herself bound for training in Colorado and Texas.

Ms. Veasey initially served in Texas in clerical capacities but was then selected to join the newly created 6888th. Being ticketed for overseas required her to undergo a more rigorous level of training at Fort Oglethorpe in Georgia.

She was clerk for the battalion’s Company B. The “six triple eight,” as the battalion was called, was under the command of Major Charity Edna Adams, who, after her marriage, added her husband’s name, Earley, and ended her military career as a lieutenant colonel.
The battalion was then sent to France, where it did similar work for nine more months. After returning from Europe and leaving the military with the rank of staff sergeant, Ms. Veasey attended St. Augustine’s on the G.I. Bill, and, in 1949, married Warren Veasey.

She graduated from St. Augustine’s in 1953, then taught school for four years in Virginia before returning to the college as administrative secretary to its president, James A. Boyer. She took time out to get a master’s degree in business administration at North Carolina Central University, but worked in various administrative positions at St. Augustine’s for three decades, retiring in 1988.

She also became, in 1965, the first woman to serve as president of the Raleigh chapter of the N.A.A.C.P., holding that post until 1968. A high point of that period was when she hosted the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. at her sister’s home in Raleigh in 1966.

Millie Dunn Veasey (January 31, 1918 – March 9, 2018)[1] was an American veteran, who served from 1942 to 1945 in the Women’s Army Corps (WAC) and the Women's Auxiliary Army Corps (WAAC).
After returning home from World War II, she worked as executive secretary at St. Augustine’s University and was active in the civil rights movement with the Raleigh-Wake Chapter of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP), where she became president in 1965.[4]
Veasey was born in Raleigh, North Carolina, just nine blocks away from the North Carolina State Capitol building
In 1953, Veasey graduated from St. Augustine’s College in Raleigh, North Carolina, with a Bachelor of Arts degree in business education and a minor in English.[6][8] She attended college on the G.I. Bill,[6] and while enrolled, she worked as the executive secretary to the President, James Boyer.[2]

A few years later, she attended North Carolina Central University and earned a Master of Arts degree in business administration as well as an education counseling minor.[9][8]

Veasey enlisted in the army with the “six-triple-eight” battalion, the 6888th Central Postal Directory Battalion in December 1942.[10]

This unit was the only all-female and all-black battalion to serve during World War II overseas.[6] She began her examinations in Fort Bragg, North Carolina, the following month. In April 1943, Veasey was shipped to Fort Des Moines, Iowa for basic military training.[11] She completed her basic training in Denver, Colorado, and was stationed as a clerk for the cooks and bakers school in Fort Clark, Texas, until the spring of 1944. She then headed to Camp Maxey, Texas, and worked in the hospital with secretarial duties.[9]

She completed overseas training in Georgia before heading to the European Theater in early February 1945,[11][12] arriving in Glasgow,[11] on the Queen Elizabeth. She was in Birmingham, England, for four months before transferring to Rouen, France, as a supply clerk until she was discharged.[9] In 1945, she left the WAC as a staff sergeant.[8]

For four years, she taught business education at Thompson High School in Mathews, Virginia, as well as eighth grade English.[6][9] She then returned to Raleigh and worked for St. Augustine's before eventually retiring as director of career planning and placement/cooperative education in 1986.[13]

Veasey was married in 1949 to Warren L. Veasey, who died in 1961,[11] and had two stepchildren, Juanita and Warren Jr.[14] She died on March 9, 2018, in Raleigh at age 100.[15]