Lt. Irene Crimmins

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.

Irene Crimmins was a Yonkers librarian before enlisting in the WAC in 1944. Her brother Col. Thomas R. Crimmins, eight years her senior, was serving with the U.S. Army in India.

Lt. Catherine Perry administered the WAC enlistment oath to both Irene Crimmins and Retta Shaefer (whose portrait hangs nearby). Lt. Perry, the WAC recruiting officer who came to Yonkers after Lt. Coates transferred, asked the girls their reasons for their enlisting. Both answered that they hoped they would help end the war sooner. Crimmins added:

I think if our grandmothers could go across the continent in covered wagons and help our men to settle this country, the least the women of this generation can do is enlist in the Army and stand behind our boys.