Trailblazing Milwaukee WWII veteran Anna Mae Robertson dies

MILWAUKEE —

 

A trailblazing WWII veteran from Milwaukee has died at 101 years old.

Family confirmed Robertson’s death to 12 News Saturday.

Anna Mae Robertson was one of the last surviving members of the “Six Triple Eight,” the army battalion responsible for clearing out a backlog of 17 million pieces of mail in just three months.

Robertson answered the ultimate call at the age of 19. She joined the battalion at the height of World War II.

In April, the all Black women’s unit was awarded the Congressional Gold Medal, the highest honor from Congress.

The group of soldiers were also just depicted in the 2024 Netflix movie, “The Six Triple Eight” starring Kerry Washington, who visited Robertson in Milwaukee recently.

“I am honored to have championed legislation to award Six Triple Eight members a Congressional Gold Medal. After receiving the Congressional Gold Medal and national recognition decades after her heroic service, I am thankful that my constituent, Ms. Robertson, was able to receive her flowers while she could still smell them,” Congresswoman Gwen Moore said in part in a statement. “I join our community in mourning her loss and remembering her trailblazing legacy.”

Milwaukee city leaders called Robertson’s life and legacy an inspiration.

“You need people to stand up and people who are going to work through those challenges and move our city forward and move our state forward and move our country forward and that is exactly what Anna Mae Robertson did,” Milwaukee Mayor Cavalier Johnson said.

Before her death, Robertson was also named the grand marshal of Milwaukee’s annual Juneteenth parade on Thursday, June 19. It is not clear who will be her replacement.