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Liza Mundy’s newest book reads like a well-written local history.
Roanoke native Liza Mundy has never been considered a local author, but with the recent dramatic success of Roanoke writers nationally, she might want to re-think.
Her newest sensation is “Code Girls: The Untold Story of the American Women Code Breakers of World War II” (Hachette, $28) and it follows “The Richer Sex,” “Love and Family” and “Michelle,” all popular titles, which landed her the title “New York Times Best-Selling Author,” a much sought designation. She was a decorated reporter for the Washington Post for many years and has been a regular commentator—especially on women’s work issues—in national TV for some years.
Mundy grew up in Roanoke, daughter of Marshall Mundy, a prominent attorney who retired after 54 years in 2016, and graduated from North Cross School in 1978. A superb English department at North Cross, a tiny, newish school born in the late 1960s of integration resistance, led her to her career.
“Code Girls” is part of a mini-trend giving credit where it has been absent to women’s contributions to Western war and space efforts, whether as nurses in the Civil War, African-American scientists at NASA and British code breaking, among others. Mundy’s book digs deep into the contribution of mostly-young women who descended on Washington in the early 1940s—many of them school teachers—as Army and Navy recruits to help break the Axis powers’ military and diplomatic codes. The 10,000 women, generally housed at complexes in and around Washington, broke often-complex codes that led to Allied victories on the battle field.
The spate of books, television series and movies on women’s contributions “is a happy coincidence,” says Mundy. The information she dug out was not, in general, secret today, having been declassified several years ago, but if you didn’t have a specific interest in codes, you’d likely not find it. “You’d have to be pretty interested,” Mundy says. She was “pretty interested” and went digging after several conversations, including questions from her husband.
The women code breakers signed oaths of silence during the war and were not aware those oaths had been negated by the years. When Mundy told some of the women she interviewed, they were surprised and ready to talk.
Among those she talked to was Dot Braden, who is in her nineties and still lives in her hometown of Lynchburg. Braden is a central character in the book, which sometimes feels like an extremely well-written and researched local history. Frank Rowlett of Rocky Mount also played an important role, as did Sweet Briar and Randolph-Macon Women’s Colleges, where code-breakers were recruited.
This is a fascinating story, heavy on character and the kind of detailed reporting a good journalist emphasizes.
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