Willenz, June A.

found: Washington post WWW site, viewed June 5, 2020(in obituary dated June 4, 2020: June Willenz, a human rights activist and advocate for equal opportunities and treatment for women in the military who played a role in creating the Women in Military Service for America Memorial, died May 3 in Bethesda, Md. She was 95. She was for 38 years the executive director of the American Veterans Committee, a nonprofit organization formed during World War II as a liberal alternative to veterans organizations such as the American Legion or the Veterans of Foreign Wars. She wrote a book, "Women Veterans: America's Forgotten Heroines" (1983), which included personal stories about military women, focusing on inequalities with military men in benefits, career opportunities, pay and promotions. As the executive director of the American Veterans Committee, Mrs. Willenz also encouraged a voice for minority issues and developed a process for legal redress for veterans with less-than-honorable discharges for such minor offenses as smoking marijuana. Mrs. Willenz was also the executive director of the Women in Military Service for America Memorial Foundation, which lobbied for the creation in Washington of such a memorial. June Adele Friedenberg was born in Brooklyn on Dec. 17, 1924. Her marriage to Eric Willenz ended in divorce. She was executive director of the American Veterans Committee from 1965 until it disbanded in 2003)