Helen Frances Harney (1898 - 1989)

Born 25 Dec 1898 in Boston, Suffolk, Massachusetts, United States

Ancestors

Died 5 Sep 1989 at age 90 in Fort Lauderdale, Broward, Florida

Problems/Questions Profile manager: Linda MacDonald [send private message]

Biography

Helen Harney served in the United States Navy in World War I
Service started: 3 Sep 1918
Unit(s):
Service ended: 10 Feb 1964

Helen Harney served in the United States Navy in the Vietnam War
Service started: 11 Feb 1964
Unit(s):
Service ended: 30 Nov 1968

She had the roar of a lion, the salty tongue of a bosun's mate and the heart of a lamb, said WAVES that served under Helen F Harney during a Navy career that began as a yeomanette in World War I and ended in the WAVES during the heat of Vietnam.

Harney, who died Tuesday in Fort Lauderdale at age 90, had lived in Lauderdale-by-the-Sea since retiring from the Navy in 1968.

When illness forced her to retire as a yeoman first class after three wars and 20 years of service spanning five decades, the Navy said Harney, then 69, was its oldest active WAVE and the only World War I yeomanette still on active duty.

Helen Frances Harney, who was born in Brighton, Massachusetts on Christmas Day, 1898^[1], enlisted in the Navy in Boston on August 29, 1918, a year after the United States joined the Allies in World War I. Navy Secretary Josephus Daniels created America's first "petticoat sailors" in 1917. A yeomanette corps, he said, would free men from clerical and other office posts and allow them to go to war.

By the time the Versailles Treaty was signed in 1919, 11, 275 women had served in the Navy Reserve as yeomanettes, the equivalent of the the old Navy yeoman rating.

One of them was Harney. Her first job as was Boston Navy Yard working as a telephone switchboard operator. She earned a special Navy commendation for her work in Boston during the 1920 flu epidemic. Later that year she was discharged.

"Women were something new to the Navy in World War I" Harney recalled in 1962. "We never saw the book on uniform regulations in the old days, and the way some of the gals wore their uniforms was really jazzy."

Harney's World War I yeomanette uniform, an ankle-length navy blue skirt with matching wool jacket and a white shirt and a tie, is now on exhibit at the Smithsonian Institution in Washington.

In a 1968 tribute, the Navy's Semaphore newsletter recalled Harney through the eyes of some of the young women who served under the crusty, salty tongued yeoman first class.

"I remember her wiggle and how she used to dance down the hall singing "Georgie Girl""one unnamed contributor said.

"I remember the morning she woke us all up. I bet every girl thought World War III had started" another said.

"She was Navy all the way. She went by the Navy regs, but she knew how to use them and enforce them wisely".

"She had no hesitation at bellowing like a bosun's mate when someone needed bringing into line" a third WAVE recalled.

Sources

1. ↑ Massachusetts, U.S., Birth Records, 1840-1915 for Harney

• 1900 • Boston Ward 25, Suffolk, Massachusetts, USA
• 1910 • Boston Ward 21, Suffolk, Massachusetts, USA
• 1920 • Boston Ward 26, Suffolk, Massachusetts, USA
• 1930 • Boston, Suffolk, Massachusetts, USA
• 1940 • Boston, Suffolk, Massachusetts, USA
• 1950 • Boston, Suffolk, Massachusetts, USA
• Helen F Harney, in the Florida, U.S., Death Index, 5 Sep 1989k, Broward.
• U.S., Social Security Applications and Claims Index
• U.S., Social Security Death Index
• U.S., Department of Veterans Affairs BIRLS Death File: Birth 25 Dec 1898. Death 5 Sep 1989. Branch NAVY, Enlistment Date 3 Sep 1918. Discharge Date 10 Feb 1964. Enlistment again NAVY, Date 11 Feb 1964. Discharge 30 Nov 1968. Retired 1868.
• https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/69069852/helen-f-harney
• Fort Lauderdale News & Sun Sentinel article by Ray Lynch, Saturday, Sep 9, 1989, p. 25.