"E" is for Earley, Charity Edna Adams (1918-2002)

"E" is for Earley, Charity Edna Adams (1918-2002). Army officer. After graduating from Booker T. Washington High School in Columbia, Earley attended Wilberforce College in Ohio where she majored in mathematics and physics. She returned to Columbia where she taught school. In 1942 Earley joined the Women’s Army Corps (WACs) and entered the first class of African American female officer candidates. In March 1945, shortly after her promotion to major, she took command of the 6888^th Central Postal Directory Battalion. At the end of the war Earley had achieved the rank of lieutenant colonel and was the highest-ranking black female officer in the WACs. After the war she and her husband settled in Dayton, Ohio where she was active in numerous community organizations. In 1989 Charity Edna Adams Earley published her autobiography, One Woman’s Army.