charged with "homosexual misconduct." In addition, she joined the Southern California Women for Understanding organization and served on the Los Angeles County Veterans' Advisory Commission. A recovering alcoholic, she also served as president of the Alcoholism Center for Women. She was appointed by Gloria Molina to the Los Angeles Commission on Veterans' Affairs and resigned in 1996 due to severe health problems. She appeared in the Before Stonewall documentary, and she was interviewed for books, including, My Country, My Right to Serve by Mary Ann Humphrey, and Conduct Unbecoming by Randy Shilts. She appeared in the Trailblazers: Unsung Military Heroines of WWII documentary by Mindy Pomper, shown ad infinitum at the Women's Memorial in Washington D.C. Personal life Phelps married a Navy man, but the marriage was unhappy, and to escape it, she joined the military in 1943. Johnnie Phelps' first female lover died when their boat was bombed as they landed on Leyte, Philippines in 1944. Living in Southern California, Phelps became politically active in the 1970s. It was around this time that she met Grace Bukowski, her last partner, who survived her. Phelps died on December 30, 1997, at the Veterans Home in Barstow, and her ashes were buried with full honor in the U.S. Veterans Cemetery in Westwood, Los Angeles. Legacy In 1993, Veterans for Human Rights organized the annual Sgt. Johnnie Phelps Annual Awards Banquet in Portland, Oregon. References 1922 births 1997 deaths LGBT people from North Carolina American LGBT military personnel 20th-century American people Women's Army Corps soldiers 20th-century LGBT people