Annie Henry: World War II Vet Serves Community

Annie Henry just turned 91 on Aug. 2.  She looks younger, and is the picture of simple elegance with her close cropped gray hair, crisp white shirt, pressed blue slacks and broad warm smile. Sitting in the small living room of her tidy Gordon Heights home, her daughter Carmen Henry and granddaughter Tamika Mendoza at her side, Annie recounts a life spent in the service of country and community.

"All things happen for a reason. I have seen racism and unfairness. It exists everywhere. But I have also seen great kindness."

In fact, Annie was recently awarded a proclamation for her life's work at the July 20 Brookhaven Town Board meeting. Though she smiles appreciatively at the accolade, Annie is not one to toot her own horn. Fortunately her daughter and granddaughter are devoted enough to do it for her, thus ensuring that a remarkable life of accomplishment and service to others has been well chronicled.

A case in point is the very large collage of WWII memorabilia that Carmen has put together for the town meeting where Annie received her proclamation. Lovingly arranged and placed under glass is an array of old photos depicting Annie in the WACs (Women's Army Corp—Annie was a Technician, 5th Grade) and her beloved Vincent, both in uniform. Annie and Carmen speak with pride about the husband and father they lost to cancer in 1980. The photos depict a handsome young man lined up with his all-black unit (commanders were white); posing casually with his army buddies; or dressed up proudly in his Ike Jacket. Annie explains how he was a medic and served in both theaters of war from 1942 to 1946, finding time in 1944 to make Annie a war bride. Annie, Carmen, and Tamika wonder if being a medic, "and doing all that cleaning up," didn't have something to do with Vincent contracting Hodgkin's lymphoma and dying at 57. Annie never remarried. "After you forge a bond like that, you just can't picture it with someone else," she said.

Other memories are happier, like Annie and Vincent starting their new life together in Gordon Heights, the all-black community in Suffolk County where city folk with a little money saved could build a future for their family. They moved to Gordon Heights in 1946 where they built the home Annie and Carmen live in today, and where Annie has spent her life doing service for others and her community. For 31 years she served as secretary-treasurer for the Gordon Heights Fire Department; for eight years she was an active member of the Longwood PTA; for 18 years she was a food service worker in the Longwood School District and served as a foster grandparent.

"She literally touched hundreds and hundreds of lives in these positions," Carmen said.

Annie recalls the one boy who never had lunch or money to buy it and was too embarrassed to say anything. "I made sure he got fed every day, and then one day years later this grown-up young man comes to visit me with a bouquet of flowers, a card, and money. He told me he'd never forget me," Annie recounts. The memory is particularly pleasing.

Within the church community, Annie has been just as active, her service almost too extensive to list. Still, it cannot go unmentioned that she is a Deaconess at Faith Baptist in Coram. As such, she has provided aid and comfort to the sick and needy since 1982.

Born in Talladega, Alabama, she grew up in the Jim Crow South and attended business school in Baltimore. In the army, she received more education and so excelled that she became secretary to the Colonel at Fort Bragg, a big achievement for a black woman in that day. Once established in Gordon Heights, she applied for a senior secretarial post at Pilgrim State Hospital. It was the job she was qualified for. They gave her something else, because in 1948, black people were not getting those positions. Annie remains philosophical about it. If she had gotten the better position, maybe she would not have been able to accomplish so much else. "All things happen for a reason. I have seen racism and unfairness. It exists everywhere. But I have also seen great kindness," Annie said.

Annie says she feels really good about her life. She has good memories, a daughter she calls a best friend and a blessing, two wonderful grandchildren and four great grandchildren. And they all have plans. Right now, Carmen explains, they are busy getting Annie's name added to the Women's Memorial located at the Gates of Arlington Cemetery. It will be one more milestone in the life of a very special woman.