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Emily Harris Preyer Collection

WVHP

Collection finding aid (offsite)

Emily Harris Preyer (1919-1999) of Greensboro, North Carolina, served with the Red Cross in Australia from 1943 to 1945. Emily Harris Preyer was born on 16 October 1919 in Reidsville, North Carolina. She grew up in Greensboro, North Carolina, and graduated from Greensboro Senior High School. She double-majored in English and French at the Woman's College of the University of North Carolina (now the University of North Carolina at Greensboro). After graduating in 1939, Preyer went directly to graduate school in English literature at the University of Virginia. In 1942, she taught German, French, and Spanish at a school in Charlotte, North Carolina. Preyer joined the Red Cross in 1943. She had two months of training in Washington, D.C., before being sent to Brisbane, Australia. After several months in Brisbane, she went briefly to Subic Bay, Philippines, in 1944 before her final duty station in Perth, Australia. Preyer remained with the Red Cross in Perth until 1945. She returned to the United States and married L. Richardson Preyer, who later served as a United States Congressman and federal judge. She also continued to be involved with the Greensboro chapter of the American Red Cross. Emily Preyer died on 12 December 1999.

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