June Townsend Gentry

June Townsend Gentry is photographed for The Tulsa World during training in Palm Beach, Florida.

Tulsa World. Tulsa, Oklahoma · Sunday, August 29, 1943

Quick Facts

Significance:

One of six few Native American Women SPARS

Place of Birth:

Oklahoma

Date of Birth:

1922

June Townsend Gentry (Yuchi/Choctaw) served in the US Coast Guard during World War II, one of the 800 Native American women to join the US military.  

Early Life

June Townsend Gentry was born in 1922 in Oklahoma. She had Native American ancestry on both sides of her family. She grew up with her Yuchi family: her grandfather, Bird Burgess, her mother, Ella A. Burgess and sister, Anne Alice Townsend. She reported her father had Choctaw heritage and that Gentry was 9/16 Native American. Gentry attended Oklahoma Presbyterian College for Girls, an institution to educate and assimilate Native American women. The College was added to the National Register of Historic Places in 1976. At 18, she married Blue Gentry Jr. in February, 1941.

World War II Service

Gentry worked briefly at Douglas Aircraft Company, taking advantage of the employment opportunities for women in war time industries, before enlisting in the Coast Guard. 

Gentry joined the SPARS, the women’s branch of the US Coast Guard in 1943. She was part of the Sooner Squadron, a group of women from Oklahoma. She trained at Palm Beach in Florida. During her time in training, she prepared to do basic office work for the Coast Guard. “I’ll be very happy when my ‘boot’ training is completed,” Gentry told the Tulsa World, “for although I’ve enjoyed the time I’ve spent here, I want to do my part in winning this war.” 

Records are harder to find for Gentry than other Native American members of the Sooner Squadron. There is little information about her time during and after SPARS available but she, like the other volunteers, contributed to the war effort.

Sources 

Sarah G. Morris. “SPARS From Oklahoma Anxious to Do Duty, Get Back Home.” Tulsa World, August 29, 1943. Pg 31.  

"Marriage Licenses." Sapulpa, Oklahoma: The Democrat News, Thu, Feb 20, 1941. Pg. 1.

Donna Vojvodich. “The Long Blue Line: ‘Sooner Squadron’—First Native American Women to Enlist in the Coast Guard.” United States Coast Guard. November 5, 2021. The Long Blue Line: “Sooner Squadron”—First Native American Women to enlist in the Coast Guard > United States Coast Guard > My Coast Guard News (uscg.mil)