Julia Parsons, U.S. Navy code-breaker during World War II, dies

Julia Parsons, a U.S. Navy code-breaker during World War II who kept a military secret about her assignment for decades, including from her Army husband, Don, died April 18

A longtime resident of Forest Hills, she was 104.

“Julia was a pioneer for women’s roles in American Society,” said Todd DePastino of Mt. Lebanon, executive director of the Veterans Breakfast Club, which creates communities of listening around veterans and their stories.

Parsons, who was born March 2, 1921, served in the Navy’s WAVES (Women Accepted for Volunteer Emergency Service). After graduating from Carnegie Tech (now Carnegie Mellon) in 1942, she was enrolled in cryptology training at the Naval Reserve Midshipmen’s School and then was sent to Washington, D.C., to join a code-breaking unit.

She was chosen to work on one of the first computers to decode German U-boat message traffic because she had studied German in high school.

Parsons knew the locations of German U-boats in the North Atlantic. She worked six days a week, rotating among three shifts. The overnight hours were the toughest, trying to stay awake, she had said.

Parsons said she never talked about what she and the other women were doing because “you never knew who was listening.”

She was tight-lipped about what she did during the war for more than 50 years. Countless lives were saved due to the code breakers.

”I never told my husband. I never told my parents. I never told anyone,” she told TribLive in 2021. “I wasn’t good at keeping secrets as a kid, but I knew this was important information to keep to myself. It was a top military secret.”

Parsons’ life will be featured on NBC’s “Sunday Today with Willie Geist” on Sunday, May 4, her daughter Margaret Breines of Norwalk, Conn., said.

Parsons finally broke her silence in 1997, which was when she discovered that the information was declassified in the 1960s. She shared her story with Don, whom she met in the service. His job took them all over the world before they decided to make Forest Hills their home in 1979.

They were married for 62 years and had three children. He died at the age of 82 in 2006.

Breines said she knew her parents were in the service and most of friends had parents who served so that was not unusual. Plus, her mom didn’t talk about what she did because of the secrets of her assignment.

Breines said Parsons said more about what she did in the war when the movie “Codebreaker” debuted in 2011 and that was pretty cool to know the impact her mother had on helping her country in World War II.

There are so many memories of Parsons, her daughter said. She said some of her favorite were when they lived in London and Parsons took her children to museums and plays. Parsons loved to travel and she instilled that love in her children.

“I have been fortunate to have my mom for 76 years,” Breines said. “My mom loved life, and she lived life to the fullest.”

She said the family was together for Parsons’ 104th birthday.

When Parsons turned 100, DePastino planned a parade past her Forest Hills home . Parsons’ mother, Margaret Potter, lived to be 100. Her father, Howard Potter, who died at 79, was head of the industry machine shop at Carnegie Tech, where Parsons enrolled after graduating from Wilkinsburg High School.

“She was sharp to the end,” DePastino said.

Parsons will be interred in Arlington National Cemetery in Virginia, where her husband was laid to rest. The ceremony with full military honors could be delayed as long as 18 months, DePastino said.

Military families can wait up to 49 weeks for services for loved ones at Arlington National Cemetery because of the high demand for graveside ceremonies and the increasing mortality rates of older veterans, according to a Pentagon Inspector General’s report on military.com.

Breines said being interred at Arlington was a wish of her mother’s because of her service in World War II and it also not far from where she met her husband in Washington, D.C.

DePastino said that throughout her entire life, Parsons handled herself with eloquence.

“She had a heart,” DePastino said. “She knew through her work in the military that people died and she felt bad about that. Women are nurtured in empathy. Julia was an inspiration to all of us.”

Sue Watson, of Mt. Lebanon, met Parsons through the Veterans Breakfast Club five years ago. They became friends.

Parsons would call Watson through Alexa, sometimes late at night just to chat. Parsons had an amazing memory, Watson said, and she loved when Watson brought her dog, because Parsons loved dogs.

“I feel like I needed more time with her,” Watson said. “She was truly my friend and she was such a treasure. She would be humbled by all of this publicity. But she would also be proud of her service. She was a woman of wit, grit and gumption.

“She was a trailblazer.”

During the 2020 pandemic, DePastino hosted online get-togethers for veterans, and Parsons often joined in from her iPad. Parsons said her children were determined to bring their mother into the 21st century with a smartphone, she had said.

‘“I have a laptop and an iPad,” Parsons had said. “I still have a flip phone. I don’t want a smartphone. I had less trouble with coding than technology.”

Parsons is survived by her children, Bruce Parsons, 79, of Florence, S.C., Margaret Breines, 76, of Norwalk, Conn., and Barbara Skelton, 73, of Cambridge Springs, Pa., along with eight grandchildren and 11 great-grandchildren.

The Veterans Breakfast Club will hold a tribute to Parsons at 10 a.m. June 12, which is National Womens Veterans Day, at the Senator John Heinz History Center in Pittsburgh’s Strip District. For more information, call 412-623-9029 or email betty@veteransbreakfastclub.org. Donations in her memory may be made to Veterans Breakfast Club, 200 Magnolia Place, Pittsburgh, PA 15228.

Details: veteransbreakfastclub.org