Anita May Gahn Keller Collection

Collection

Identifier: WV 0140

Staff Only

Content Description

The collection includes a 11 January 2000 oral history transcript; photographs of Anita in uniform with friend and mother in Miami, 1943.

Dates

circa 1943
2000 January 11

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

Anita May Gahn Keller (1923-2011), of St. Louis, Missouri, and Washington, D.C., served as a civilian in the Air Transport Command and Signal Corps from 1942 to 1946.

Anita May Gahn Keller lived in St. Louis, Missouri, until the age of thirteen, and then moved to Washington, D.C. She graduated from Sacred Heart Academy High School in 1941 and then studied drama and speech at Catholic University in Washington. She moved to Chicago, Illinois, with her family in 1942 and worked briefly for the Railroad Retirement Board."

Keller joined the Air Transport Command in 1942 as a civilian. She had training at Quantico, Virginia, and then began work in the Pentagon Annex as a cryptographer. In February 1943, she was transferred to the 36th Street Air Force Base in Miami, Florida, where she continued working as a cryptographer and also trained other in coding and decoding. In 1945, Keller transferred as a civilian to the Signal Corps and was relocated to Jefferson Barracks in St. Louis.

After the war ended, she organized counselors who processed men out of the military. She met Herbert Keller during this time and they were married in May 1947. Keller left the work force to raise their two children. Herbert Keller worked for National Cash Register, which took the family to Lexington, Kentucky, and then, in 1970, to Greensboro, North Carolina.

Extent

0.209 Linear Feet (1 box with 2 folders.)

Language of Materials

English

Additional Description

Abstract

Anita May Gahn Keller (1923-2011), of St. Louis, Missouri, and Washington, D.C., served as a civilian in the Air Transport Command and Signal Corps from 1942 to 1946.

The collection includes a 11 January 2000 oral history transcript; photographs of Anita in uniform with friend and mother in Miami, 1943.

Arrangement

The collection contains the following series. Series 1. Oral History Transcript. Series 2. Photographs.

Condition Description

The condition is good.

Offensive Language Statement

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