Dimmick, Gladys
This project has been completed. You can view the transcribed interview with Gladys Dimmick and other military veterans at here.
Instructions
- If you have not already done so, review the Help Us Transcribe page for step- by-step instructions on how to transcribe the oral histories in this collection (it might be helpful to leave this page open for easy reference).
- Before you start transcribing the interview, please check out the project’s Tips on Transcribing page for formatting guidelines and explanations on how to handle military terminology. You can also see a sample transcription page here.
- Once you are ready to proceed, click on the link below to be taken to the Scripto login page for Gladys Dimmick:
Interview with Gladys Dimmick (Interviewer: Iris Howell-de Nijs)
Biography
Gladys M. Lunsford was born on November 8, 1923, in the community of Cedar Grove in Orange County, North Carolina, to Harvie R. and Biddie R. Lunsford.
Lunsford graduated from Bragtown High School in Durham, North Carolina in 1939. After high school, she spent several years working at the nearby Liggett-Myers Tobacco Company factory in Durham.
In December 1943 during World War II, she enlisted in the women’s branch of the U.S. Naval Reserve, known as WAVES (Women Accepted for Volunteer Emergency Service). This service had been established by Congress the year before in 1942 as the U.S. Navy Women’s Reserve, giving women official status as officers in the U.S. Navy. She attended boot camp at Hunter College in New York. In February 1944, Lunsford was assigned to work in air traffic control as a control tower operator at the U.S. Naval Air Station in Norfolk, Virginia. She married Jim Dimmick in December 1946.
She left the WAVES in February 1947. The Dimmicks moved to St. Petersburg, Florida, where they both attended the University of Florida under the GI Bill following WWII and also started their family. In 1954, the Dimmick family settled in Chapel Hill, North Carolina.
In Chapel Hill, Gladys Dimmick worked at the University of North Carolina Law School for 24 years an administrative assistment for several deans, including Dean J. Dickson Phillips. She also worked there as the Law Alumni Coordinator and as the Director of of Placement and Alumni Secretary. When Dickson Philips was appointed as Judge of the U.S. 4th Circuit Court of Appeals, Dimmick relocated to Richmond, Virginia to be his personal secretary.
Gladys Dimmick was a member of American Legion Post 6 in Chapel Hill. She also participated in the Betty H. Carter Women Veterans Historical Project at the University of North Carolina at Greesnboro, contributing an oral history interview and her papers to the library's collection. She also contributed an oral history to the collection of the State Archives of North Carolina.
Gladys L. Dimmick died on May 5, 2011, in Chapel Hill, North Carolina.