Nashville Banner, Sunday, March 31, 1918
Work of Patriotic Women of Williamson County – Splendid Individual Record of Miss Susie Gentry
Miss Susie Gentry, Williamson county chairman of the Council of National Defense, is very proud of the work done by the women of her county in the various avenues of patriotic activity. She reports a splendid response in the book drive for the soldiers’ library, and also states that Franklin, Williamson county raised $1,578 for the woman’s committee of the Council of National Defense for the Y.W.C.A. Miss Gentry also states that Williamson county also led the rural counties of Middle Tennessee for the Woman’s committee for the sale of liberty loan bonds.
Miss Gentry says that almost every woman in Williamson county is a member of the Red Cross, and that there will soon be six army comfort circles in the county, the one at Hillsboro having twenty-six members.
The Franklin Parent-Teacher Association has adopted a French orphan and is collecting books for the soldiers as their special war work …
Miss Gentry is anxious to have preserved the fine war service records of the women of the county and at her request the various workers are sending in their reports of individual service. Miss Gentry’s own individual record is given here as a model of patriotic achievement along many lines, ranging from splendid work as county woman chairman of the Council of National Defense, to the making, with her own hands, of seventy-one articles for the soldiers and sailors. Miss Gentry organized, April 20, the Williamson County Army Comfort Circle which did the first war work in the county during 1917; gave the first contribution in the state to the woman’s committee, Council of National Defense … made the first contribution in the county to the Allies relief committee, and was the first contributor in the county to the U.D.C. ambulance and hospital bed for the French front.
Miss Gentry made the first contribution in the county for the fund for the equipment of the hospital ship by the Colonial Dames resident in Tennessee. She offered the first kit to the battleship Tennessee; was the first chairman of the knitting department of the local Red Cross chapter…gave one kit to the gunboat Nashville and one to the ship Dixie; gave two pair gloves to the destroyer, The Balch; gave three comfort bags to the Nashville, and a contribution to the guidon presented to Battery F, 114th field artillery.
Miss Gentry gave twenty-five good standard volumes for the soldier’s library including sets of Kipling and O.Henry; gave thirteen Testaments, two to white soldiers and eleven to Negro soldiers, and 120 magazines to the soldiers at one time, and others at various times. She donated to both the Y.M.C.A. and Y.W.C.A. campaigns, and also to Red Cross campaign; gave two donations to French orphans and a donation for comfort bags; gave and made eight pin balls and seven needles books and eight button bags, and filled, packed and shipped them for navy; made sixteen ‘many-tailed’ bandages for English allies; collected and sent large package of leather and kid to the Glove and Waistcoat society for making wind-proof garments for the English; made and gave one feather pillow to Red Cross, also two comfort bags, two quarts of preserves and four glasses of jelly; gave material for twelve knitted wash cloths.
Miss Gentry paid for two Red Cross memberships; gave to the restoration of French village of Tilloly, and to the D.A.R. liberty loan bond; gave preserves and jellies to army comfort circles. She has contributed to the T.C.T.W.U War chest, ambulance fund, and the motor stereopticon; purchased a $100.00 war certificate, and made and gave the first Red Cross banner to chapter. She has written uncounted letters to the boys in service, Miss Gentry having the distinction of … April 23, in the Nashville Banner, ‘that all women of the state put up and set aside one jar of preserves, vegetables, one glass of jelly and one bottle of grape juice for the use of our soldiers in hospitals or camps.’ This suggestion was heartily taken up by the Red Cross chapter in Memphis, after it was organized; by the W.C.T.U. of Nashville, and Woman’s Club of Knoxville, and generally, by the women of this and other states.
Mr. Herbert C. Hoover wrote a personal letter thanking Miss Gentry for the good she was doing in education and conservation, and she also received letters from the Fond Commission of Washington, and state commission for similar services. An editorial in the Okumulgee Daily News stated that a letter written by Miss Gentry to a friend who read it to the Woman’s Club was the inspiration for organizing a Council of National Defense there.
Miss Gentry has just given her most prized war heirloom of her father to a naval surgeon now is service in the South. This is a very fine and complete ivory-handled three-tier case of surgical instruments, made in Paris, France, and purchased by her father, Dr. Watson Meredith Gentry, when a student there in the sixties and later used by him in the war between the states.
Another valued gift made by Miss Gentry was the use of a storehouse as a Red Cross work room in Pulaski for the rest of the year. Miss Gentry also gave a large table to the war kitchen of the Home Economics and Demonstration Club of Franklin.
Miss Gentry put up fifty gallons of fruits, jellies, preserves, grape juice, pickles and kraut, of which gifts have been made at every call and to the sick of the town. She gave one large tub full at one time as a tithe.
Miss Gentry has distributed many flowers among the telephone girls and sick of the towns.
Miss Gentry placed a wreath and a flag on the grave of the first soldier to die in Williamson as representative of the Williamson County Army Comfort Circle, paying him an eloquent tribute.