Dunn, Janet

Description

Janet P Dunn

Janet Procter Dunn was born in June 27,1916 in Massachusetts to Helen Mansfield Procter, age 32, and Theodore Ira Dunn, age 31. She had one older brother Theodore.

In Rye her family lived at 7 Ridgewood Drive and were members of Christ’s Church. Janet was a Rye High School Graduate, Class of 1933.

A graduate of Bouve College in Boston she received a masters degree from New York University. She majored in physical education in college and was an avid golfer and tennis player.

Janet served as an officer in the Women’s Army Corps during World War II.

She was an early volunteer in the Women’s Army Corps (WACs). She enlisted in March 1943 and was commissioned a second lieutenant. Janet served in the South Pacific from September 1944 until the end of World War II.

General Douglas MacArthur called the WACs “my best soldiers”, adding that they worked harder, complained less and were better disciplined than men. Many generals wanted more of them and proposed to draft women but it was realized that this “would provoke considerable public outcry and Congressional opposition”, and so the War Department declined to take such a drastic step.

Those 150,000 women who did serve released the equivalent of 7 divisions of men for combat. Gen. Dwight D. Eisenhower said that “their contributions in efficiency, skill, spirit and determination are immeasurable”.

Janet received an honorable discharge in March 1946 as a first lieutenant

After the war, Janet moved to California, She was dean of girls and retired as assistant principal at Los Alto High School in Hacienda Heights. She retired in 1981 after 30 years of service with the California schools.

Janet P Dunn died on February 5, 1984, in California at the Whittier (Calif) Presbyterian Community Hospital of cancer. She was 67