Ahead of their Time: Anne Tracy and the Senior Women of the Cincinnati Union Terminal USO Lounge

SPRING 2013 41 Ahead of their Time Anne Tracy and the Senior Women of the Cincinnati Union Terminal USO Lounge C. Walker Gollar T wo black soldiers wandered through Cincinnati’s Union Terminal one afternoon early in 1943. Drawn to the “USO” banner that hung in the corner of the semi-circular concourse near the front door, one of these men muttered, “You ask.” “No, you ask,” rejoined the other. During World War II tens of thousands of troops, including these two black soldiers, passed through Cincinnati’s train station moving to and from military service. Many visited the lounge—now a Graeter’s Ice Cream Parlor—of the USO, or United Service Organizations. From under the banner, a widow in her sixties, Grace Bellamy Mann, approached the soldiers. One of them mumbled, “We guess this is a private club.” To the contrary, Mann explained, the USO welcomed “any man in uniform, regardless of his race or creed.” The soldiers, along with four or six of their friends, “came in,” as Mann reported, and “helped themselves to the food, smokes, etc., and later were directed to a movie to enjoy before they left town.” Mann claimed that the USO was more inclusive than even the Red Cross, for which she also volunteered . “I felt proud,” she concluded, “that I had had the pleasure of explaining what the U.S.O. really stands for, and that race prejudice had no place in it.”1 Amidst the harsh religious and racial segregation of America in the early 1940s, the claim of USO inclusivity was astonishing and mostly true, at least in Cincinnati. Across the country many USO facilities failed when it came to achieving the organization ’s professed goal of openness. Cincinnati’s USO lounge, in contrast, took the inclusive mission to heart. Especially under the leadership of Anne Cecelia Tracy, the senior women of Cincinnati’s USO lounge consciously created a space where soldiers passing through received respect and appreciation for their service regardless of skin color and religious affiliation. Immediately after World War II, several writers praised the work of the USO. A handful of historians subsequently analyzed a few aspects of the clubs and camp shows, but no scholar has explored the contribution of the USO transit stations. The story of the Union Terminal USO lounge thus remains untold, despite its significance. This Cincinnati effort illustrates the unprecedented level of mobilization during World War II, demonstrates that era’s prevalent tensions over sexuality and gendered spaces, and affirms the power of interfaith organizing. Most unique of all, Anne Tracy and the Cincinnati lounge offered a tolerant space during a relatively intolerant time.2 AHEAD OF THEIR TIME 42 OHIO VALLEY HISTORY Before World War II, Cincinnati women already enjoyed a history of helping soldiers in need. Generally falling under what contemporaries called “War Camp Community Service,” religious-based agencies across the country had helped World War I military personnel get to and from military bases, keep in touch with family members left behind, and relax when off duty. The Salvation Army, the Young Men’s Christian Association (YMCA), the Knights of Columbus, and the Travelers Aid Society assisted military personnel in this fashion. Begun in midnineteenth century Saint Louis,Travelers Aid was, like the other organizations mentioned above, rooted in communities of faith, but always provided services regardless of age, gender, or beliefs. Three weeks after the outbreak of World War I, Travelers Aid organized on a national level to benefit soldiers on the move. Tracy served as the executive secretary, or more simply put, the day-to-day “head” of the Cincinnati Travelers Aid Society during World War I. Headquartered in various downtown locations, Travelers Aid conducted most of its business through small booths located in Cincinnati’s two train depots. Through the Cincinnati, Lebanon, and Northern Railway station on Court Street, and more significantly at Pennsylvania Station near the downtown riverfront, Travelers Aid provided nourishment and rest, all free of charge, to approximately one hundred thousand “lonely and tired and friendless” servicemen during the course of the war. “Part of our job, in the early days,” Tracy remembered, “was caring for transient young soldiers . We tried to...