Marian and Vivian Elzie were not only sisters but soldiers who served together in the U.S. Army’s first and only all-African-American, all-female unit during World War II, the 6888th Central Postal Directory Battalion.
To Karen Taylor of Baltimore, Maryland, the women she calls her heroes were simply Aunt Marian and Mom.
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The Elzie sisters were born in the small town of Crisfield, on Maryland’s Eastern Shore in the late 1920s.
“My grandfather was a waterman,” explained Taylor. “He did oysters and crabs and had a small farm.”
Taylor’s grandparents had 11 children -- only one was a boy.
“Needless to say, the South was very prejudiced, and they couldn’t get any jobs,” explained Taylor. "My grandfather tried to encourage them to go places where they could get jobs.”
Most of the Elzie sisters went to Philadelphia, where they worked on assembly lines and in other jobs.
“Aunt Marian went into the service and would write to my mother telling her what it was like, that they got to travel,” said Taylor.
Marian’s letters would convince Vivian to join the service.
“Eleanor Roosevelt helped to open the WACs (Women’s Air Corps) to black women, so my mother joined,” said Taylor.
Vivian soon decided that she wanted to be an officer, so she attended Officer Candidate School.
“She eventually became a lieutenant,” said Taylor
By 1945, Marian and Vivian were assigned to the Six-Triple-Eight, which was a segregated unit that served in Europe.
“They went to England first, then they went to France,” continued Taylor “They had segregated places to live, a cold place, no heat. They had to make it do for themselves.”
Members of the 6888th found themselves working in warehouses with “mail up to the ceiling,” said Taylor “and they were expected to get that taken care of."
By dividing their work into shifts that ran every day, all day, the women processed an average of 65,000 pieces of mail per shift, clearing the previous six-month backlog of letters in just three months.
“Their goal was let’s get them the mail," said Taylor.
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Marian, who was a private first class, met Capt. Elyseo Taylor and soon introduced him to Vivian, who was a First Lieutenant.
The couple would marry in Paris on Sept. 20, 1945, with Vivian wearing a wedding gown supplied by the Red Cross.
Vivian would later tell her daughter that they were treated “more kindly” in Europe than they were when they returned home to the United States following their military service.
“They proved that we were better than they thought,” said Taylor.
The 6888th has been nominated for a Congressional Gold Medal.
Reach Julia LeDoux at Julia@connectingvets.com.
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