Louise M. Meekins

Louise Hartwell Miller was born on September 13, 1896, in Manteo, North Carolina. She graduated from Manteo High School in 1916 and attended Normal State College in Greensboro, North Carolina, from September 1916 to March 1917. The next year she attended Southern College of Business and Administration in Norfolk, Virginia. Upon completion in May 1918, she enrolled with the US Navy Reserve Forces. She served at the headquarters of the 5^th Naval District in Norfolk, from July 15 to November 11, 1918. Her rank was yeoman third class.

On December 26, 1919, she married Ernest E. Meekins. Meekins briefly taught school before concentrating on raising her family. Sadly, she would outlive two of their four children. Their daughter Dorothy died in 1942 of heart failure when she was just 18 years old. Meekins would also survive her son, Ernest Jr. who died in 1975 at 54 years old.

Louise Meekins (far right) in her NPS uniform leading a tour in 1954. (Fort Raleigh National Historic Site photo)

Meekins’s World War I service meant she was one of the relatively small number of women who had veterans hiring preference for government employment. She began working for the federal government in June 1941 as a clerk for the Selective Service System in Manteo. She continued working there until a “reduction of force” action eliminated her job on May 10, 1947. She was briefly reinstated from August 30, 1948, until August 26, 1949, when her job was again eliminated.

In the 1940s Meekins became associated with Fort Raleigh National Historic Site when she served as the curator for the Roanoke Island Historical Association.

Meekins began her National Park Service (NPS) career on February 26, 1950, when she was 53 years old. She was hired as a historical aide at Fort Raleigh National Historic Site, earning $2,450 per year. In 1951 she was promoted to tour leader and she received another raise in 1954. In September 1955, Meekins was promoted to park historian. She briefly returned to the tour leader position in 1956, but in 1958 she was once again promoted to historian.

Louise Meekins gives a tour wearing the 1961 women's uniform, Fort Raleigh National Historic Site. (NPS History Collection photo)

In the 1950s Meekins also oversaw the park’s growing museum collection. In 1960 she expanded the park’s community outreach by developing a slide show for local schools.

In an interview in the 1980s, when Meekins was 81 years old, she recalled that she “was the only woman wearing the uniform” at the park. “I would go to staff meetings and they were all men. In my later years I did have a woman who worked for me as a park guide but it was a man’s organization.”

Meekins was the park historian until September 30, 1966, when mandatory retirement put an end to her NPS career. She was awarded the Department of the Interior’s Commendable Service Award and an Outstanding Service Award from Eastern National Parks and Monuments Association for her dedication to the NPS.

Meekins died June 15, 1986, at age 89 at Nags Head, North Carolina. She is buried in Roanoke Island Memorial Gardens.

Sources:

Barnes, Jessica. (2020, March 18). “Louise Meekins: First Female OBX National Park Ranger.” Outer Banks Forever.

Binkley, Cameron and Davis, Steven. (2003, November). Preserving the Mystery: An Administrative History of Fort Raleigh National Historic Site. National Park Service.

“Louise Meekins Retires.” (1966, December). National Park Courier, p. 11.

Meekins, Louise telephone interview. (Undated). Polly Kaufman Collection, NPS History Collection, Harpers Ferry Center.

Explore More!

To learn more about the history of women and the NPS uniform, visit Dressing the Part: A Portfolio of Women's History in the NPS.


This research was made possible in part by a grant from the National Park Foundation.