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Charlotte Louise Berry Winters turned a high-school education into a valuable support role for the U.S. Navy during World War I. In doing so, she helped open doors for women to serve in the military for the next century.

A founding member of USS Jacob Jones Post 2 in Washington, D.C., Winters passed away March 27 at age 109. She was the last known Navy yeoman and female veteran of World War I. Her funeral in Frederick, Md., on March 30 was attended by family, friends, an honor guard, pallbearers and a firing party from the Navy Ceremonial Guard. Chief of Naval Operations Adm. Mike Mullen also attended the service.

“Every sailor in our Navy joins me today in mourning the passing of our shipmate, Charlotte Winters,” Mullen said. “We offer her family and friends our deepest sympathies and most heartfelt condolences.”

Born Nov. 10, 1897, Winters graduated from Washington Business High School in 1915 and enlisted in 1917 after Secretary of the Navy Josephus Daniels decided to permit women to serve in support roles. Women who enlisted were designated Yeoman (F) and were assigned mostly to secretarial and clerical positions, though some served as translators, draftsmen, fingerprint experts, ship camouflage designers and recruiting agents. They worked at the Navy Department and wherever else needed, freeing sailors for combat duty. More than 11,000 women enlisted during World War I.

Winters served in the Washington Navy Yard in Building 57, the current home of the Naval Historical Center. She was one of the last Yeoman (F)s to be discharged, in 1919, and was immediately hired by the Navy as a civilian to fill her active-duty job.

Charlotte Winters “was a trailblazer, one of a relatively small group of women to serve in our Navy during World War I,” Mullen said. “She did so honorably and nobly, helping through that service to bring freedom to millions of people all across Europe and hope to thousands of young women all across America. She and her shipmates answered the call when the nation needed them most. They worked hard. They struggled. They persevered, and they set a shining example. And, as in Ms. Winter’s case, some stayed on to prepare the Navy to fight and win yet another world war.”

Winters was a founding member of the National Yeoman (F) veterans organization, and served as its eighth commander from 1940 to 1941. She joined what was then Betsy Ross Post 1 – comprised entirely of Yeoman (F)s – on July 23, 1919. In October 1919, The American Legion’s National Executive Committee granted a new charter to Post 1, changing its name to the USS Jacob Jones Post 2. Winters was a member of The American Legion for 88 continuous years. In 1936, she was appointed chairman of the Sesquicentennial Anniversary of the Constitution celebration, coordinating the activities for every American Legion post that participated in the Washington event.

She married John F. Winters in 1947 and retired from her Navy civilian job in 1953. Her husband passed away in 1983, and Winters moved into an assisted-living facility in 1990. She remained active for many years.

“Theodore Roosevelt once observed that ‘no nation has the root of greatness in it unless in time of need it can rise to the heroic mood,’” Mullen said. “Ms. Winters and every other American sailor of World War I, man or woman, certainly rose to the heroic mood. We salute her memory, and we thank her for inspiring us to do the same.”