Quanah Barber had never been out of her hometown of Martin's Mill until she joined the Waves in 1943. Little did Barber realize at the time that she was making history as the first Wave in Van Zandt County.
Barber was trained in communications and spent much of the World War Two years coding and de-coding messages. In 1947, women were allowed into the regular Navy for the first time. Barber transferred from the Waves, who were reservists, into the regular Navy and spent twenty years as a Naval Careerist.
Joan Hallmark, Reporting.
