04/21/2025
Dayton Historians to Hear about WWII Women Code Breakers
DAYTON – The Dayton Historical Society will meet Monday evening, April 28 at 6 p.m. at Parker Hall and have a very interesting program in store.
Julia Beard Garrett will be telling the story of her mother’s important work during World War II as a Navy code breaker. Her mom, Lydia Elizabeth King Beard, enlisted in the Navy in January 1943 to join the war effort and worked in the Code Room in Washington, D.C., trained to decipher cryptic messages, which contributed to shortening the war and saving lives.
The “Code Girls” as they were called, were instructed to never reveal what they did, and she never told her daughters about her work, even many years after the war was over.
After her mom passed away in 1998, Julia and her sister Caroline found her Cryptographic Training books and other papers from her war service they had never seen before, and certain “things” began to make sense.
A book entitled Code Girls by Liza Mundy was published in 2017 which tells the story of these heroic women and their contributions to the war. Prior to the book, none of the women were ever acknowledged publicly or notified when their oath of silence was lifted. Now, Julia will share Lydia’s important story.
Julia and her husband Phil live in Houston. She uses her time and talents by telling her mother’s story at every opportunity, volunteering at High Island at the Houston Audubon’s bird sanctuaries and playing with her grandchildren Olin 11 and Eleanor 6.
Parker Hall is located behind The Old School Museum and the public is very welcome to attend the meeting.
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