True Lewis: Veteran. Women shouldn’t be in the military.

True talks about her family legacy of four generations of firstborns, with her being the first woman, serving in the U.S. Armed Forces; joining the U.S. Army despite her “mom” (grandmother) and birth father feeling that women should not be in the military but with the support of her "dad" (grandfather), the ultimate decision maker; becoming a food service specialist like her birth father; serving for seven years in Korea and Egypt until her military career was cut short because of a rare autoimmune disorder; being in the National Organization of Rare Disorders and near death in Walter Reed National Military Medical Center for three months; wanting to learn more about her ancestry due to her illness; attempting to join the Daughters of the American Revolution in Kentucky but chapter members using a brown box with white and black balls for a secret vote to accept or deny her, being “accepted” but members non-responsive thereafter; not feeling connected to her white Revolutionary War patriot "Yohan" Nicholas Barrick but instead, the documentation of her black ancestors speaking to her; eventually feeling connected through her patriot's service, reinforcing her service as a soldier in the Army, and their both being willing to make the ultimate sacrifice; and feeling overwhelmed that her white patriot is receiving recognition through her research as a woman of color.  She shares oral history about growing up in Harrisburg, Pennsylvania, born the day before Martin Luther King, Jr. was assassinated, to a young white mother of German descent from four generations who lived in PA back to her Revolutionary War patriot, and to a black father from Florida, an Army Vietnam veteran who retired from the U.S. Marine Corps, when interracial relationships were not accepted; being legally adopted by her black paternal grandparents from Alabama, unsure if her maternal grandfather was aware she had a black father; her adoptive grandparents’ four children feeling like siblings instead of aunts and uncles, her father feeling like a big brother; having a child as a teenager with a mixed race high school sweetheart; attending community college to study pre-med; divorcing in her early twenties with two children and losing her job with the Pennsylvania State Lottery; her grandfather serving in WWII Normandy, her son serving in Iraq and Afghanistan; settling in Fort Knox, KY; co-hosting an online genealogy show; watching Roots with her grandparents who talked about their enslaved grandparents including enslaved paternal great-great-grandfather Ike who had three wives and 23 children; her mother not knowing her family history, taking a full mitochondrial DNA test which led to her Revolutionary War Patriot who served as a private in the militia in PA; discovering her patriot's service from his pension record; always being told that she came from nothing because she was black but then discovering her patriot ancestry, feeling disbelief that she qualified for DAR; being on a genealogy show which turned into a program with two white DAR members helping prepare her application; feeling confirmation, disbelief, anger, and pride when learning of her patriot; exercising her birthright to join DAR, standing in proxy for future grandchildren; joining a PA chapter with her mom since she was not embraced by two KY chapters; during the DAR national convention in Washington D.C., randomly ending up in a taxi full of KY Daughters who convinced her to join their chapter then feeling right at home; serving on the Volunteer Information Specialist committee; "I am the definition of America"; DAR means having a sisterhood; "DAR is doing what they say they are going to do to not discriminate against race, creed or color".

Read True's biography at www.daughterdialogues.com/daughters

Subscribe to the newsletter at www.daughterdialogues.com