Her Stories

- Documenting the Role of Women in Local History -

Sarah Lucinda Hall, better known as Lucy Hall, was a Bellefonte woman who made her own memorable contributions to the American war effort during World War II. Hall did this by seeing off hundreds of Centre County soldiers departing for military service every Monday morning during the war years.

Hall came from Unionville, PA. When Selective Service began to draw groups of young Centre County men to service, she activated her one-woman farewell committee. With no other means of transportation than her own two feet, Hall would hitchhike to Bellefonte from Unionville early every Monday morning. Then, always waving the same two small American flags, she would escort the group of departing troops from the old YMCA down West High Street to the Pennsylvania Railroad Station. She fulfilled her duty and stuck to this routine, in good weather and bad, winter and summer.

Hall's last public appearance in this role was in 1951, when the Bellefonte National Guard troops left for federal service for the Korean War. Hall was 76 years old and, because of illness, a resident at the Centre County Home. Harry Keller, a Centre County Commissioner escorted Hall to the station so that she could bid the troop farewell.

Hall died at the age of 88 on May 26, 1963. A resolution, adopted by the Centre County Commissioners, commended Sarah Lucinda Hall for her patriotism, and they urged veteran's organizations to fly their flags at half-mast in her honor. She was buried with an appropriate military service on the eve of Memorial Day that year in Union Township.