Anna Mae Robertson, a trailblazing World Struggle II veteran and one of many final surviving members of the historic Six Triple Eight battalion, has died at 101 years outdated. Her household confirmed her passing over the weekend.
At simply 19, Robertson stepped as much as serve her nation, becoming a member of the barrier-breaking, all-Black girls’s battalion throughout World Struggle II. Within the face of each racial and gender discrimination, the Six Triple Eight took on a mission others deemed unattainable: sorting by way of 17 million items of mail to reconnect U.S. troops with their family members throughout wartime. They did it in simply three months.
“I believed I used to be doing a superb job,” Robertson instructed WISN in 2019. “I believed I used to be serving to somebody. They might go to the entrance line and do one thing that I couldn’t do.”
Robertson’s legacy is deeply tied to the resilience, sisterhood, and unshakable delight that defines the story of Black girls in America.
“Anna Mae Robertson, this present day will probably be endlessly cherished deeply in my coronary heart. Your legacy will stay on by way of the power of your lovely household and within the hearts of Black individuals in all places,” actor and producer Kerry Washington wrote in a tribute on Fb. “You, and the extraordinary girls of #TheSixTripleEight [that] you’re assembly up in Heaven, paved the way in which with grace, grit, and bravado.”
Washington lately portrayed a commanding officer in “The Six Triple Eight,” Tyler Perry’s 2024 Netflix movie honoring the battalion. She had visited Robertson in Milwaukee forward of the movie’s launch.
In April, Robertson lived to see her unit lastly acknowledged with one of many nation’s highest honors: the Congressional Gold Medal.
“I’m grateful that my constituent, Ms. Robertson, was capable of obtain her flowers whereas she might nonetheless odor them,” mentioned Congresswoman Gwen Moore, who helped champion the laws, per WISN. “I be a part of our group in mourning her loss and remembering her trailblazing legacy.”
Milwaukee leaders, like Mayor Cavalier Johnson, additionally mirrored on her impression.
“You want people who find themselves going to work by way of these challenges and transfer our metropolis ahead, and that’s precisely what Anna Mae Robertson did,” he mentioned.
Earlier than her passing, Robertson was named the grand marshal of Milwaukee’s Juneteenth parade, set for June 19. Whereas it’s unclear who will fill her spot, her presence will little doubt be felt.
Her life was a reminder that Black girls’s contributions to this nation can’t, and won’t, be erased. As Washington mentioned, “Might she relaxation in peace and energy.”
