Reva Ingram Fortune Collection
Content Description
The collection includes an oral history transcript, 8 February 1999; various photographs of Fotrune’s Women’s Army Corps service as an Army Air Force Service Pilot, 1943-1947; various copies of letters, 1943; various newspaper articles from UNCG Campus Weekly and Greensboro News & Record, 1991-1997; a “Sky High Experience” article located in Oversized Box 1, 1997.
Dates
- circa 1943-1999
Creator
- Fortune, Reva Ingram (Person)
Conditions Governing Access
Collection is open for research.
Conditions Governing Use
Copyright is retained by the creators of items in these papers, or their descendants, as stipulated by United States copyright law.
Manuscript collections and archival records may contain materials with sensitive or confidential information. Please see our Sensitive Materials Statement.
Biographical / Historical
Reva Pauline Ingram Fortune (1917-2018) of Greensboro, North Carolina, served with the Army Air Force while in the Women's Army Corps (WAC) from 1943 to 1948 and with the Women in the Air Force (WAF) from 1948 to 1952. She then spent twenty-five years as a Social Security Administration employee in High Point, NC. Reva Pauline Ingram Fortune was born on 6 April, 1917 in Colfax, Illinois, and raised on a farm outside of Greensboro, North Carolina. She was one of six children; two of her sisters also served in the military during World War II. After graduating from Greensboro High School in 1933, Fortune worked as a secretary at Pomona Terra-Cotta Company.
Fortune enlisted in the Women's Auxiliary Army Corps (WAAC) in the spring of 1943 and attended basic training at Daytona Beach, Florida. She was then assigned to Buckingham Army Air Field at Fort Myers, Florida, where she served as company clerk and first sergeant of a WAC squadron. Fortune was stationed there until the air field closed in 1945. She was then transferred to Turner Field in Albany, Georgia, for six months. From there she was sent to Goodfellow Field in San Angelo, Texas. Three months later Fortune was assigned to Randolph Field in San Antonio, where she remained for several years.
While at Randolph Field, Fortune attended night classes at Trinity College and met her future husband, Roy Fortune, a paratrooper in the 11th Airborne Division. In 1948, the air force was established as an independent branch of the United States military, and Fortune re-enlisted for another four years with the WAF. In 1952, when her enlistment was up, Fortune was stationed in Fort Myers, Virginia. She then married Roy Fortune and left the Air Force.
When Roy Fortune was stationed overseas in 1953 and 1954, Reva Fortune returned to Greensboro and moved in with her parents. She enrolled in classes at Woman's College (now the University of North Carolina at Greensboro) on the GI Bill and graduated in 1958 with a degree in biology and a minor in Spanish. The following year she went to work for the Social Security Administration in High Point, North Carolina, where she remained for twenty-five years, until her retirement in 1984.
Extent
3.21 Linear Feet (4 folders, WVPH General oversize box 2)
Language of Materials
English
Metadata Rights Declarations
- License: This record is made available under an Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International Creative Commons license.
Condition Description
The condition is fair.
Offensive Language Statement
The UNC Greensboro University Libraries collects, preserves, and makes accessible unique and historical materials for learning and research. The nature of historical materials is such that some material may represent positions, norms, and values that are offensive and objectionable. These materials represent the opinions and actions of their creators. By providing access to these records in our reading room and through our digital collections, we recognize that archives and rare books can play a vital role in holding those creators accountable and in helping us learn from the past.
Our finding aids and other collection descriptions may occasionally re-use language provided by creators or former holders of the materials, but we strive to place outdated or offensive terminology in context. That said, we recognize that we may not always make the right decision and welcome feedback from all sources so we can learn and adjust our practices. Please contact us at scua@uncg.edu if you encounter problematic language in our finding aids or other collection description. We will review the language and, as appropriate, update it in a way that balances preservation of the original context with our ongoing commitment to describing materials with respectful and inclusive language.
Processing Information
Processed by Matthew McCarthy.
- Korean War, 1950-1953
- Korean War, 1950-1953 -- Participation, Female
- United States Air Force - Women
- United States. Air Force
- United States. Army. Women's Army Corps -- History
- United States. Army. Women's Army Corps -- Interviews
- United States. Army. Women's Army Corps -- Military life
- Women and the military
- World War, 1939-1945
- World War, 1939-1945 -- Participation, Female
- Title
- Reva Ingram Fortune Collection
- Status
- Completed
- Author
- Matthew McCarthy, Victoria Hinshaw
- Date
- 2022 September, 2022 October
- Description rules
- Describing Archives: A Content Standard
- Language of description
- English
- Script of description
- Latin
- Language of description note
- eng
Repository Details
Part of the Martha Blakeney Hodges Special Collections and University Archives Repository