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Sierra Kondos

Special to the News

 

The accomplishments of a Port Arthur woman who was part of the “Six Triple Eight,” or 6888th Central Postal Directory Battalion are being recognized locally and statewide.

Sgt. Kate Pate Walker was honored posthumously with a ceremony recently with a state proclamation and flag presentation in an event organized by Jessie Davis, of Historic Sacred Spaces and Sandra Castille, with the African American Cultural Society. 

She will also be inducted into the Museum of the Gulf Coast at a later date. 

Tom Neal, the director of the Museum of the Gulf Coast, presented Walker’s achievements to the 18 board members and the vote was unanimous. 

“It’s amazing to discover the people who have come from here and learn all the things that they have done,” he said. “We learn about new people all the time.”

Neal is referring to the Six Triple Eight, made up of 855 women, received the Congressional Gold Medal in 2022, the highest civilian honor bestowed by the United States Congress, in recognition of their vital service during World War II. The “Six Triple Eight” Congressional Gold Medal Act of 2021, signed into law by President Biden on March 14, 2022, recognized their service and sacrifice.

The battalion’s mission was to sort out years of backlogged mail and, despite facing racism and sexism, they successfully processed millions of letters and packages, connecting soldiers with their loved ones and boosting morale. Their motto was “No mail, low morale.”

However, Walker’s family did not know the details of her deployment in Europe until the day before Tyler Perry’s, “The Six Triple Eight” 2024 film debut on Netflix.

“When I learned of my grandmother’s past I thought, ‘My grandmother was the G.O.A.T,” Michael Walker Jr. said. G.O.A.T. meaning ‘Greatest of all time.’

Walker’s daughter, Valerie Walker, said her mother’s humble beginning as a maid wasn’t the kind of life that she wanted to keep living.

“When she joined the army, she was shipped off to Birmingham, England,” she said. “It wasn’t until the battalion arrived that they were faced with a seemingly impossible mission. They were to accomplish a task that no other battalion could do, and they were given six months to do it.”

However, the Six Triple Eight accomplished the mission in three months.

“Apart from making their living spaces somewhat livable, the women worked other jobs before or after their 8-hour shift sorting through the mail,” she said. “She was a cook and also a Sergeant.”

The battalion was self-contained to protect themselves from another war they were fighting – racism.

 “They didn’t need anything,” Jessie Davis, member of the Historic Sacred Spaces, said. “They had their own band. I found out they had their own athletic team where they would compete. I don’t know when they had time to do that, but maybe that was down the road. But they were self-contained. They had their own MP, their military. They had women that were police officers, salon-workers and so on.”

After the war, Pate-Walker took advantage of traveling around Europe before being sent back to Texas.

“She visited France,” Valerie Walker said. “She toured Shakespeare’s home and mom said the French people were very kind to them.”        

However, when they came back to their own communities, they could not get jobs in what they were trained for.

“It just wasn’t that time in America,” Davis said. “She just kind of came home and melted into society, you know, got married, had children, and just lived. When they came back, they were still fighting a war with segregation. Pate-Walker used her G.I. Bill to go to seamstress school and got married and had a family.”

According to her obituary, Walker’s mission was faith-based community service.

“Kate Walker was a Sunday school teacher at St. Paul for over 40 years,” the obituary stated. “She also served her community as a volunteer worker at the United Board of Mission for over 30 years, president of the United Methodist Women, served on District and Conference of United Methodist Women, member of the Senior Citizens Group, member of the Esther Wesleyan Joy Circle, member of the Community Flower Club, member of the Women Interdenominational Association, worked as Velma Closet volunteer for RSVP, register of deed for the Pride of Port Arthur, and a good friend to all who needed a friend.”

On her 90th birthday, she received the key to the city of Port Arthur in recognition for her humanitarian actions.

“At her birthday party, the Port Arthur Mayor, Mrs. Bobby Prince came to the birthday dinner and presented the key and proclamation to her in the presence of all who love her,” Michael Walker Jr. said.

Walker died Dec. 23, 2012 but her legacy lives on in the lives she touched with each letter she helped connect to waiting families and soldiers.

“I’m proud to know that our women, our black women, went there with all the chaos around them, they were still able to get that mail out to the soldiers to bring the morale back up,” Davis said. “They changed the world. The Six triple Eight in World War II changed the war forever, and they should have gotten honored long ago, but we’ll take it now.”

For more information on the 6888th Central Postal Directory Battalion, visit www. https://www.womenofthe6888th.org.