This column has yet to feature lipstick, until today. In all candor, the thought never crossed my mind, that is until the Pierre de Mandeville Chapter NSDAR (National Society of the Daughters of the American Revolution) Newsletter Volume 18 Issue 5 December 2025 appeared in my inbox, courtesy of my fellow DAR member Melissa Sprafka.
The daughter of a World War II veteran, I honed in on page 5 entitled "'Victory Red' : Honoring WWII Through Red Lipstick." It caught my eye because my late mother, for all her life and mine, wore red lipstick --- Red Diamond was the color, by Elizabeth Arden.
In fact, Momma stockpiled it; after she passed away, we found a stack of unopened boxes of Red Diamond in her makeup drawer. I guess she didn't want to risk being without. But I never knew why the shade was red, and I never thought to ask. It just always was. I assumed that it was the most flattering. But everything was flattering on my mother --- she was striking in her youth or so everyone has said. I didn't come to know her until her fourth decade when she had me, in December of 1964, a couple months shy of her 40th birthday.
After reading the article on "Victory Red," I began to wonder if there wasn't more to Momma's choice of lipstick. As I have written before, my mother - Margie Nell Brumfield (Ellzey) --- graduated as valedictorian of Franklinton High School in 1942. Many times, I heard her recount the winter before. It was Monday, December 8, 1941, the day after the Pearl Harbor attack, when the principal called all the classes into the auditorium. Then and there the student body, faculty, and staff heard, via the radio, President Franklin Delano Roosevelt make the declaration of war before Congress.
According to Momma, as recorded by my daughter, her only grandchild, "My grandmother said everything changed so much at the time she graduated from high school in 1942. Everyone was very aware of the war, and patriotism was very high. Everyone wanted to do something toward the war effort."
Accordingly, my mother gathered with a group of Franklinton ladies who made bandages for the Red Cross. In an essay which earned her the Dean's Honor Scholarship (full merit-based tuition) to Tulane University, Betsy wrote, "They met in the home economics department at the high school in the evenings, and my grandmother remembered sometimes folding bandages until midnight. Someone took them to the Red Cross headquarters in Bogalusa, and the Red Cross sent them to where they were needed."
But it wasn't all work and no play.
Betsy added, "While World War II was being fought, some of the ladies in Bogalusa, a town near Franklinton, would organize parties at the YWCA on Saturday nights for the soldiers stationed at Camp Shelby in Mississippi. My grandmother occasionally attended these socials. She recalled helping with the refreshments and of course dancing with the soldiers."
And my father, a Tylertown native, was one of these soldiers. In the summer of 1942, Momma met the man she would marry in 1946, post-war. It was from Camp Shelby that Daddy first began writing to her.
Back to the article in the DAR newsletter, red lipstick was the color of choice during World War II - "it evolved into a powerful symbol of patriotism, resilience, and the unbreakable spirit of American women." Cosmetic companies offered red colors that included "Fighting Red" and "Victory Red." The latter was the creation of Elizabeth Arden for women everywhere, after their initial introduction of "Montezuma Red" for the Women's Army Corps (WAC), matching their uniform trim and included in their official makeup kit. All women wanted to wear it, raising morale and showing strength during the uncertain time, so the cosmetic company created "Victory Red." And according to the article, red lipstick became, among other things, "[a] reminder of dignity, confidence, and unity" and "[a] visual emblem of the American spirit."
As the article explained, women served as WACs (Women's Army Corps), SPARs (U.S. Coast Guard's Women's Reserve), WAVES (Women Accepted for Volunteer Emergency Service in the women's branch of the U.S. Naval Reserve), and nurses, and those on the home front stepped up, working in offices, shipyards, factories, and military auxiliaries. They endured hardships at home, with rationing and work, yet they decided to display red, on their lips, "a quiet act of courage and pride." How wonderful that the DAR recognizes and honors these American women who were part of the war effort.
And finally, the DAR article went one step further, encouraging members to wear lipstick, the color red, in tribute to "the brave women who came before us-and inspire us to carry their legacy forward with pride, purpose, and patriotism." I'm on board. In fact, I'm one step ahead. Like my mother before me, I wear red lipstick, sometimes my mother's shade from her backstock - Red Diamond, and other times my own.
While previously I wasn't aware of the patriotic meaning, the information was illuminating, much like the shade of red. Perhaps it explains my mother's devotion to Red Diamond. Graduating from Field Artillery Officers' Candidate School in Fort Sill, Oklahoma, in November of 1942, my dad was one of twenty-five second lieutenants in his graduating class chosen to attend the Army Air Corps Basic Flying School in Denton, Texas, where he earned his wings as a liaison pilot. After returning to Fort Sill where he graduated from Field Artillery Advanced Flying School, he was assigned to the 28th Field Artillery Battalion, 8th Infantry Division, as a liaison pilot for the field artillery.
In my mother's words, after 53 years of marriage, "From Normandy to the war's end in Germany he flew endless hours not only facing enemy artillery guns, but flying directly in front of his own artillery fire, and as a result was awarded the Air Medal with 3 oak leaf clusters, along with 4 campaign medals, the victory medal, occupation medal, and a battlefield promotion to Captain." And throughout, from 1942 to 1945, Daddy wrote to Momma --- candid letters which constituted their courtship.
They may have been a continent apart for most of it, but this much I do know, all the while Momma was wearing red lipstick. And finally I know why.
