Anne McCarthy Beard

Anne McCarthy Beard, 95, of Williamsburg passed away on Monday, July 15, 2019.

Mrs. Beard was born on December 15, 1923 in Boston, Massachusetts to Augustus and Hazel Joyce McCarthy. She graduated from East Boston High School and took a job with Joseph P. Kennedy, Sr. at his Maine and New Hampshire Theatre Company. Following Pearl Harbor, she sought a more war-related job. With Mr. Kennedy’s assistance, she was hired as an apprentice welder at the Bethlehem Shipyard in Hingham, Mass. She became a Master Welder and as a Winnie the Welder was assigned the critical welds including welding the gun mounts on Destroyer Escorts. Mrs. Beard frequently attended USO dances at the Copley Plaza Hotel in Boston, there she met 2nd Lt. Daryl Adelbert Beard of Himrod, N.Y. Following a brief courtship, they married on St. Patrick’s Day, 1944. In January 1945, she left the shipyard and took a supervisory position with military intelligence at Arlington Hall in Arlington, Va., where she was a supervisor in Japanese Code. Thus, Anne has perhaps the unique distinction of being both a Winnie the Welder and Code Girl in World War II. She and Daryl made a 33-year career in the U.S. Army living in Fort Benning, Bragg, Polk and Monroe. They had overseas tours in Japan, Turkey and Germany. They retired to Williamsburg in 1976, where she was active as a volunteer with the College of William & Mary and the Williamsburg Foundation.

Survivors include her son, D. Michael of Fredericksburg, Va.; daughter Joy Schank of Himrod, N.Y.; granddaughter Jennifer Wells of Roswell, Ga.; great-grandchildren Matthew and Megan Wells; and brother Robert Schlosberg of Scottsdale, Ariz.

Interment will be in Arlington National Cemetery at a later date.