Collection finding aid (offsite)
Elizabeth Betty Hyatt Caccavale (1923-2016), of Walnut Grove, South Carolina, served as a cryptographer in the United States Navy WAVES (Women Accepted for Volunteer Emergency Service) from February 1943 to May 1945. Elizabeth 'Betty' Hyatt Caccavale was born in Walnut Grove, South Carolina, on 6 January 1923. She graduated from Spartanburg High School in 1940, and then worked as a secretarial assistant at two insurance businesses. Caccavale joined the WAVES in February 1943. She attended basic training at Cedar Falls, Iowa, and then was assigned to Washington, D.C., to decode Japanese naval communications at the Naval Intelligence Office. She married Philip Caccavale in February 1945 and left the service in May 1945. The Caccavales moved to New York, where Betty worked on Wall Street and her husband started a fuel business. They had two children, and after they were grown, Betty attended Queens College in Queens, New York.