Last updated: February 26, 2024
Person
Lula Belle Everidge
Lula Everidge's family, Donna Vojvodich & USCG Historian's Office
Quick Facts
Significance:
One of few Native Americans in SPARS
Place of Birth:
Whitesboro, Oklahoma
Date of Birth:
December 16, 1918
Place of Death:
November 15, 2018
Date of Death:
Danvers, Massachusetts
Lula Belle Everidge served in World War II as one of the few Native American SPARS. Her contribution to the war effort helps us understand how Native Americans participated in the War.
Early Life
In 1918, Lula Belle Everidge (Choctaw) was born in Hugo, Oklahoma. Her father, Edward Everidge, was an enrolled member of the Choctaw Nation. She attended Goodland Indian School with her three siblings. Goodland Indian School, often also referred to as Goodland Orphanage, has a complicated history. On one hand, it was a tool for the assimilation of Native American children. But it was also a Choctaw-supported institution and a place parents could send their children to get a good education. After Everidge graduated from Goodland, she earned her teaching degree at Southeastern Oklahoma College. She then returned to Goodland to teach in the early years of World War II.
Serving in SPARS
In 1943, Everidge joined SPARS, the women’s branch of the Coast Guard. She did so in part because of an offer in Oklahoma that women could train together with friends. A mentor encouraged Everidge to enlist alongside her friend and fellow teacher Lula Mae O’Bannon (Choctaw). The two friends were so close that one Coast Guard Academy report called them “two peas in a pod.” [1]
The two Choctaw women joined the Sooner Squadron representing the state of Oklahoma in SPARS. There were four other Native American women in the Sooner Squadron. They were sent to the SPARS training facility in Palm Beach, Florida, the Biltmore Hotel, which is now in the National Register of Historic Places. A newspaper quoted Everidge and O'Bannon jointly as finding the training “invaluable and at the same time most enjoyable.” Neither woman had seen the ocean before. They told the Tulsa World it was “even more beautiful than words or pictures had led us to expect.”
More unusual, Everidge and O’Bannon stayed together after training. They served as typists in the Coast Guard Headquarters in Philadelphia. Sharing a dorm, the two women impressed their commanding officer, Captain Eugene A. Coffin. He recommended them for officer training in Connecticut. When O’Bannon went to Hawai’i, Everidge was stationed in Boston. There, she administered tests to sailors applying for service school. At some point, Everidge found herself in New York City. A letter was sent home to her parents and published in the local newspaper that she had attended church in the city.
Before the end of World War II, Everidge returned to Philadelphia to become the secretary to the District Engineer. At the time, she told the Tulsa World she intended to return to teaching at Goodland after the war. But serving in Philadelphia, Lula Belle Everidge met George Shirn. Shirn was born in Pennsylvania, the son of survivors of the Armenian genocide. He served in the Navy during World War II, stationed out of Philadelphia.
After World War II
Lula Belle Everidge married George Shirn in 1946. She taught in Schenectady, New York, while Shirn pursued his engineering degree. When Shirn went to Massachusetts to work at Sprague Electric in North Adams, Everidge used the GI Bill to get a master's in teaching from North Adams State College. Everidge continued to teach elementary school in Massachusetts for another 22 years. She won several teaching awards, including Williamston Teacher of the Year.
Lula Belle Everidge continued to be proud of her Choctaw heritage. She ensured her daughters and grandchildren were registered members of the Choctaw Nation.
Lula Belle Everidge Shirn passed away at age 99 in 2018.
Notes:
[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.
Sources:
Alicia Ault. “The Remarkable and Complex Legacy of Native American Military Service.” Smithsonian Magazine. The Remarkable and Complex Legacy of Native American Military Service | At the Smithsonian| Smithsonian Magazine
"Lula Belle Shirn." The Berkshire Eagle. Massachusetts. December 18, 2018.
"Lula Belle “Lu” Everidge Shirn (1918-2018)"Find a Grave Memorial. Accessed December 27, 2023.
Sarah G. Morris. “SPARS From Oklahoma Anxious to Do Duty, Get Back Home.” Tulsa World, August 29, 1943. Pg 31.
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)
"United States Census, 1930", , FamilySearch (https://www.familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:XC7Q-T21 : Thu Oct 05 19:04:00 UTC 2023), Entry for E M Everidge and Pearl Everedyn, 1930.