Born: 2 December 1902, United States
Died: 1963
Country most active: United States
Also known as: NA
The following is republished from the National Park Service. This piece falls under under public domain, as copyright does not apply to “any work of the U.S. Government” where “a work prepared by an officer or employee of the U.S. Government as part of that person’s official duties” (See, 17 U.S.C. §§ 101, 105).
Beatrice V. Ball was born on December 2, 1902, in Garden Valley, Idaho, to James and Catherine Scanlon Ball. She moved with her parents and two brothers to Vici, Oklahoma, where graduated from high school in 1922. That same year she enrolled in Northwestern State Teachers College in Alva, Oklahoma, graduating with a BS in Social Science in 1929. Working her way through college, in 1924-1925 she taught seventh grade and served as a basketball coach in Vici. For the next two years she taught sixth grade and coached in Wiley, Colorado, followed by a year as a high school teacher and basketball coach in Grand Valley, Colorado. In 1929 she joined the staff of the Young Womens Christian Association (YWCA) in Grand Valley, working as general secretary as she coached basketball at Ross Business College.
In 1930 she returned to Northwestern State Teachers College to study journalism, working part-time as a reporter with the Alva Daily Review Courier. Her journalism career was short, however, and she didn’t finish her degree. While at a YWCA she saw an advertisement for policewomen with the Metropolitan Police Department in Washington, DC. She took the required Civil Service policewoman exam, scoring within the top three. On August 21, 1931, was offered a position as private (class 1) with the department’s Women’s Bureau.
She held that job for a decade, working her way up to a private (class 6). In one memorable case around 1935 she was the bodyguard for a woman set to testify against a notorious gang. While working she earned a law degree from Columbus University in 1939. She was the first woman to attend that university’s school of criminology for police officers.
Newspaper accounts from 1941 describe her as “an expert pistol shot, a rodeo rider, a professional basketball player and coach, a physical director, a schoolma’m, a law school graduate, and a trained detective”—and all before she was 39 years old.
In 1941 the USPP sought to recruit a dozen officers in an effort to properly police the rapidly expanding national park system in the National Capital Parks. One of the vacancies was filled by transferring Ball from the Metropolitian Police Department. Although newspaper accounts report that she joined the USPP on January 1, 1942, there was a delay in her transfer due to a typographical error in her police exam score. Her official personnel file records her start date as May 1, 1942. The lateral transfer meant that she continued as a private (class 6) and her salary of $2,400 per year remained the same.
As the first USPP policewoman, Ball was hired to take charge of all cases involving women and children and as “a decoy for mashers and criminal elements” operating in the parks. She was the only woman among 90 male officers. When she was hired, Park Police Chief Mark H. Raspberry noted that Ball represented a “long-awaited asset” and that a woman operative “has been something needed for years.”
Ball’s USPP career was short, however, because she chose to join the war effort. Determined to have a “more concentrated war job—not just fooling around with some halfhearted efforts,” she asked permission to apply for a commission as a lieutenant junior grade in the Women’s Reserve of the US Navy (known was WAVES). On August 31, 1942, she submitted a request to Raspberry for release from duty noting,
At the end of the such services with the Navy I respectfully request that I be reinstated in my present class at the US Park Police service. My previous training and experience make it possible for me to assume responsibilities in the line of investigation in the Navy that few women candidates possess at the present time. Therefore it is urgent that I assume these duties as soon as possible. I have passed the examinations and requirements necessary for [this] commission.
The Department of the Interior (DOI) approved her request on September 4, 1942. She was called to active duty on November 10, 1942. She was furloughed from her USPP job, which gave her reinstatement rights to the position when World War II ended. Her position was backfilled by several men over time rather than by another woman.
After the US Coast Guard (USCG) Women’s Reserve (known as SPARS) was established, she transferred there. She was one of the first class of 13 women to attend the Coast Guard Academy. She became the first SPARS officer assigned to the USCG’s Office of Intelligence. During the war she became an assistant intelligence officer in Washington, DC, and was the first SPARS to be assigned intelligence work in New York and Miami.
As the war in Europe was coming to an end, Ball and other active duty personnel received received a memo in May 1945 from the DOI stating in part,
We intend to see that your rights are fully respected. Not only that, but we intend to place you, according to qualifications and eligibility, where you can serve both yourselves and the Department to the best possible advantage.
Questionnaires were sent to the DOI employees in the Armed Forces so that “the greatest possible use can be made of the new knowledge and skills that you have acquired while in service.” Ball indicated that she was interested in something besides police work. In 1945 the USCG sent her to Ketchikan, Alaska, as a personnel officer. By the time she was released from active duty in 1946 she had attained the rank of lieutenant commander and was authorized to wear the American Theater of War, Asiatic-Pacific Theater of War, and Victory ribbons.
The Board of Police and Fire Surgeons medically cleared her to return to USPP on April 13, 1946. She requested reinstatement effective August 16, 1946. However, Ball decided to pursue a BFA degree from Denver University instead and resigned effective August 31, 1946.
In 1951 the Korean War saw her recalled as assistant to the chief of the special services division at USCG headquarters. She rose to the rank of commander before she retired in 1961. She died of cancer in 1963 and is buried in Arlington National Cemetery.