Since Betty White died Dec. 31, just a few weeks shy of her 100th birthday, there have been many tributes to the comedian, actress and animal lover. But other facts about her life have emerged—including that she had a connection to the Exchange.
In a 2010 interview with Cleveland magazine, White reminisced about joining the American Women’s Voluntary Services in 1941. According to the interview, White was given a uniform and assigned a job driving a PX truck delivering supplies to troops staying in temporary camps in the Hollywood Hills. Dances were held for the troops before they shipped overseas.
“It was a strange time and out of balance with everything,” White told the magazine, “which I’m sure young people are going through now.”
According to her New York Times obituary, White “delivered soap, toothpaste and candy to soldiers manning the gun emplacements the government had established in the hills of Santa Monica and Hollywood.” The then 19-year-old had not begun her professional acting career but had been involved in student productions at Beverly Hills High School, from which she graduated in 1939.
American Voluntary Women’s Voluntary Services was a nationwide military-support organization founded by New York socialite Alice Throckmorton McLean before the United States’ entry into World War II. In a 1942 Time magazine article, McLean is quoted as saying, “We shall remain on duty for 24 hours. Our Motor Corps and emergency kitchen will be .. ready to push to any spot where there is a disaster.”
Although White, like the majority of AWVS members, was not famous when she joined, a couple of members were: Joan Crawford, already a big star, also served in the AWVS, as did Hattie McDaniel, who had won a Best Supporting Actress Oscar for her work in 1939’s “Gone With the Wind.”
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