This photo of Florence appeared in the St. Joseph News-Press (June 23, 1980) when she was made Commander of American Legion Post 359. Here is the article (minus the listing of other new officers of the post):
A woman, Florence "Floss" Dailey, who was an Army nurse for four years during World War II, has been elected commander of the Pony Express post of the American Legion. Mrs. Dailey, the first woman to be elected commander of an American Legion post in St. Joesph, spent three years as an Army nurse in the South Pacific during the war. She had received her nursing training at St. Mary's Hospital, Rochester, Minn., which is connected with the Mayo Clinic. She is now an office nurse for Dr. John Mothershead. As commander, she will be the head of the primarily male, 861-member post, the largest in St. Joseph. The post has clubrooms at 4826 Frederick. It has a number of women members, but only three others attend meetings regularly. Mrs. Dailey is the widow of John F. Dailey Jr., an Air Force pilot whose plane disappeared in the Azores in 1951. The craft was never found and he was declared legally dead. She is the mother of four children and a grandmother. "She'll be a fine leader," one member of the post said today. "She is friendly, honest and fair. She will swing a wicked gavel." Mrs. Dailey was also recently elected chaplain of the Fourth District of the veterans organization. "I told them I would take the job but I would not hear confessions," she commented. Friendly and blunt, she asked the reporter seeking information for this story, "What are you doing? Writing my obituary?" |