Pvt. Flora M. Murray

In 1943 artist Francis V. Kughler, Hudson River Museum Director H. Armour Smith and Women’s Army Corps recruiter Joanne Coates conceived a plan to encourage women of Yonkers to enlist in the army and honor their contribution. Every Yonkers woman who joined the WACs would have her portrait made in oil or pastel by Kughler.

Murray was 36 when she joined the war effort and chose to work as a stenographer for the Army ground forces. Like many families of the Yonkers WACs, Murray’s family had recently come to the United States. Born in Ireland, she immigrated with her family in 1911 when she was two years old.

After World War II, Murray continued to serve in the Army during the Korean War, and later became a Smithsonian Institution war historian.