American Legion Auxillary

A group of 20 officers who served in the American Expeditionary Forces in World War I were asked to suggest ideas on how to improve troop morale. One officer, Lt. Col. Theodore Roosevelt Jr., proposed an organization of veterans, which we know today as The American Legion.

The original purpose of The Legion was “to preserve the memories and incidents of our association in the Great War,” helping those who had served in foreign wars to reintegrate into their hometowns while still remaining connected to those with whom they had served abroad.

The Legion served as a support group, a social club and an extended family for former servicemen. After two planning caucuses held by a committee of officers who had the confidence and respect of their military comrades, they designed a constitution to govern the group and set up headquarters in New York City to begin work on its programs of relief, employment and Americanism.

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After the formation of The American Legion, a number of women's organizations wanted to become the official affiliation of The American Legion. The women who had served so faithfully during the trying days of the war wanted to continue to serve. 

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After careful consideration, the committee agreed that a new organization should be made up of the women most closely associated with the men of the Legion, and that these women would serve with the Legion, in peace as they had in war.

The committee decided to build a new organization from the ground up, so the Auxiliary could then carry forward the phases of Legion activities more suitably performed by women.

In less than one year, 1,342 local units of the Women’s Auxiliary to The American Legion had been organized in more than 45 states.

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Brief History of Unit #113

 

Originally chartered in 1926 and was active until1997 when charter was lost due to lack of membership.  In May of 2005 the unit was rechartered and the 5 remaining original members rejoined at that time but have all passed away since that time. 

 

The first major event was held in January 2006 at the old armory building in Lufkin and was called “Fill an Angels basket”.  Jean & Marvin O’Conner from Corsicana’s daughter was a flight technician in the Air Force.  On her first stop at Bagram Air Base in Afghanistan, many soldiers came rushing to the plane asking for any handouts as they were desperate for anything from home.  She told her parents about it and they started Angels of Corsicana and started sending boxes to them.  When we learned of this, Jean & Marvin were invited to Lufkin and hundreds of donations were made and shipped the next week to names we were given.  Several new members joined at that time.  Since that date not a single month has been missed (to date January 2024).  At one time over 100 boxes were sent every month but unfortunately we are not getting names and addresses as we once did so the number of boxes per month has been drastically reduced but we are still sending boxes every month.  If you know of anyone deployed, please send us their name and address and we will be happy to start sending them boxes with a little “Love from Lufkin”.  They love Atkinson Candy and generally request it when they learn it’s made right here in Lufkin.   

 

Donations of small travel size toiletries (non-aerosol), playing cards, hand held games, AA batteries, snacks (no chocolate during some months) Sunday comics, crossword puzzle books.  Many other items such as wash cloths, squeegees, flip flops and requested items from the troops, plus blank greeting cards they can use to send home such as birthday, anniversary, holiday and more.