'The Six Triple Eight' honors Black, all-female WWII battalion who ensured mail reached U.S. troops

HOUSTON, Texas (KTRK) -- An audience in Houston was among the first to see the untold story of Black women who served our country overseas in World War II.

The women are at the center of a new Tyler Perry film, "The Six Triple Eight," about a battalion made up only of Black members of the Women's Army Corps.

The Six Triple Eight served a critical role during the war, ensuring mail reached the American troops.

As the Wounded Warrior Project points out, that task was quite the worthy undertaking.

Stacks of unopened mail sat in warehouses and hangars in Birmingham, England. As Allied forces changed locations, mail delays increased, creating a staggering backlog.

That's where the Six Triple Eight came in. They were deployed to Europe to clear that backlog of letters and packages from family members to loved ones fighting on the frontlines.

As you can imagine, hearing from home was major to soldiers and impacted them psychologically.

So, it's fitting the battalion's war cry became "No Mail, Low Morale."

But the group was also obscure in the annals of history and never got the salute they deserved.

Brenda Partridge Brown says she never even knew her own mother, Willie Belle Irvin Partridge, was part of the battalion until a Google search nearly 20 years after she died.

Now this untold story is getting some help from Hollywood.

Tyler Perry wrote and directed the Netflix film that stars Kerry Washington and Oprah Winfrey, who plays Dr. Mary McLeod Bethune, a woman key to the acceptance of Black women as enlisted personnel in the Women's Army Corps, noted the WWP.

Perry told late-night talk show host Jimmy Kimmel that the inspiration to tell the story came from Corporal Lena Derriecott Bell King, who was 99 when he met her.

"She's got her makeup, her hair done. She says, 'Hello, Mr. Perry, what can I help you with?' We started talking about the war and 1942 and how she experienced it, and her memory was amazing. So, that's where this story came from," Perry said.

King was able to see a cut of the film before she died on Jan. 18, 2024, at age 100.

Ahead of the movie's wider release in a couple of weeks, it premiered in Houston on Wednesday night at Tinseltown along the Northwest Freeway.

Stelena Hooper-Evans, of Third Ward, shared that her mother, Mildred Gates Hooper, served in the Six Triple Eight.

"Her duty was a censor. She censored the mail," Hooper-Evans said. "They knew that they had to make sure that no bad news was given to the GIs. They would mark out any bad news: Dear John, your father passed or dog passed. They were so glad to get something from home."

They also censored mail coming from the battlefield to the United States in case enemies intercepted it.

Hooper-Evans was ecstatic the story so many have forgotten or never even known about is finally being told.

"I went out and bought special earrings. Clock - it's about time. And this side, it's bubbles. We're gonna celebrate," she said.

There were 855 members of the battalion. Most have passed.

"The Six Triple Eight" debuts Dec. 20.

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