Ensign Frances Eliza Wills, A Sailor's Story
Ensign Frances Eliza Wills, A Sailor's Story
Ensign Frances Eliza Wills was born on October 8, 1916, in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. She later moved to New York City, where she attended Hunter College, pursuing her education at a time when opportunities for African American women were still sharply limited by segregation and discrimination.
In November 1944, during the final year of World War II, Wills volunteered for service in the United States Navy. She was accepted into the WAVES program (Women Accepted for Volunteer Emergency Service) and attended the Naval Reserve Midshipmen’s School at Smith College in Northampton, Massachusetts.
Upon graduation, Ensign Frances Wills, alongside Lieutenant (junior grade) Harriet Ida Pickens, became one of the first African American women commissioned as officers in the United States Navy. Their commissioning represented a significant milestone in the gradual desegregation of the U.S. armed forces.
After receiving her commission, Ensign Wills was assigned to duty in Washington, D.C., where she taught naval history and administered classification tests, critical work supporting personnel assignment and wartime operations. Though her service did not place her in combat, her presence and performance helped break long-standing racial barriers within the Navy’s officer corps.
Following her discharge from active duty, Wills chronicled her experiences in her memoir, Navy Blue and Other Colors, published in 1945. The book offers a firsthand account of the challenges and triumphs faced by African American women entering naval service during World War II and remains an important historical document.
In civilian life, she remained engaged in civic and cultural causes, including active involvement with the Brooklyn Botanic Garden auxiliary.
Ensign Frances Eliza Wills died on January 18, 1998. Her commissioning stands as an early step toward the full integration of the United States Armed Forces and reflects the quiet courage required to serve not only one’s country but also the cause of equal opportunity within it.
She wore the uniform when the Navy was still learning how to live up to its own ideals. And because of women like her, it did.
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About the Author
a.d. elliott is a wanderer, photographer, and storyteller traveling through life
She shares her journeys at Take the Back Roads, explores new reads at Rite of Fancy, and highlights U.S. military biographies at Everyday Patriot.
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