Corporal Joan Miriam March Davis

Early Life

Joan Miriam March was born in Boston, Massachusetts, on September 29, 1929. Her father, David M. March, was a hearing aid salesman. Her mother, Mary Brennan March, was a native of Nova Scotia, Canada, who earned a law degree from Boston University Law School in 1924. Joan was the oldest child and had two younger sisters, Miriam and Leah.

At some point in the 1940s, the family moved to Wethersfield, Connecticut, where David March opened the Hearing Center of Connecticut, which he owned and operated for several decades. While the family resided in Boston through her elementary years, young Joan attended both grammar school and high school in Mamaroneck, New York. According to her military enlistment file, Joan took an array of business and clerical classes and played two years of high school basketball before she graduated in 1947. 

In 1948, Joan March worked as physician’s assistant to Dr. Harold J. Lutze, New Rochelle, New York. In that position, she prepared patients prior to examinations, sterilized instruments, and assisted the doctor during treatment and minor surgeries. At some point, the time frame of which is unclear, she returned home to Wethersfield, Connecticut.

Homefront

WOWS

During World War II, like citizens nationwide, Boston area residents provided significant homefront support for the Allied troops through rationing, purchasing war bonds, and planting victory gardens.  Additionally, as men shipped off to combat duty overseas, women stepped up to the plate and filled industrial roles to support the war effort. For example, 3,000 women called WOWS, went to work at the Watertown, Massachusetts, arsenal making guns and other weapons to help defeat the Axis troops. 

Shipbuilding

Throughout history, Boston played a major role in military ship production. While the Boston Navy Yard built warships in earlier wars, it mostly filled the role of reconditioning and repairing the U.S. fleet during World War II and the Korean War. During the latter conflict, Boston received 40 Liberty ships they reconditioned for combat.

Defense Contract Technology Hub

Beyond shipbuilding, New England factories landed $5 billion in overall defense contracts by July 1952, to build airplanes, munitions, and transportation equipment. Additionally, Boston area universities, such as Harvard, Brown, and MIT, landed big government contracts and became technological research hubs. During World War II, all of the countries involved raced to develop technology that would provide them with a strategic advantage. Boston was the site of a U.S. federal government top secret research project, known as the Radiation Lab, that played a key role in winning the war through the development of radar technology. By the end of the Korean War, New England institutions of higher learning held 10% of United States’ research for defense contracts.

Military Experience

On February 13, 1951, Joan March, who lived in Wethersfield, Connecticut at the time, traveled to Boston and enlisted in the U.S. Marine Corps. Following her military induction, March was sent to the Third Recruit Training Battalion, Marine Corps Recruit Training Depot at Parris Island, South Carolina, where she received training until March 31, 1951.

Following training, in April 1951, Private March was sent west to San Francisco, where served as a Mail and Files Clerk at the Headquarters Department of the Pacific. In this role, she sorted, distributed, and managed incoming and outgoing mail for Marines stationed there, as well as maintained and organized other important documents.

After only three months, on July 31, 1951, March received her first promotion to Private First Class. It is likely that during the early days of her assignment, she met Army Sergeant John Harold Davis from Meeker, Oklahoma, and the two quickly became enamored with one another. On November 17, 1951, Private First Class Joan March and Sergeant John Davis married at Lincoln Park Presbyterian Church in San Francisco. 

Only four days after their marriage, Joan March Davis was promoted to Corporal. She continued her assignment in San Francisco for six more months and then requested her discharge. On May 29, 1952, Joan March Davis was honorably discharged and returned to Connecticut. Although March Davis served during the Korean War, the duration of her service was spent stateside.

Veteran Experience

Upon leaving the Marine Corps, Joan Davis and her husband, John, lived in Connecticut, where they raised a family that included three daughters and one son. Beyond her family, Joan Davis was very proud of her work for 22 years as curator of the Stanton House. The Stanton House and General Store were built in 1791 by a wealthy merchant and businessman and later became a museum. Filled with original furnishings, since 1919, the Stanton House and General Store Museum provided visitors with a glimpse of privileged life in New England during the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries. At the museum, Joan Davis wore many hats. She was in charge of fundraisers, helped maintain the facility, and provided educational programs for visitors.

Commemoration

On May 25, 2015, Joan March Davis of Berlin, Connecticut, passed away surrounded by family, including her husband John, to whom she was married for 46 years. Davis is buried at Connecticut State Veterans Cemetery, Middletown, Connecticut. She was survived by her husband John, son Mark, and two daughters, Patricia and Sharon. March was preceded in death by her parents and a daughter, Lauren.

Bibliography

Primary Sources

Aerial View of Navy Yard, Boston, Massachusetts. Photograph. Administrative History of the First Naval District in World War II, 1946 – 1946; Records of Naval Districts and Shore Establishments, Record Group 181; National Archives at Boston. (NAID 38329885).

Connelly, Milton, “Women Playing Big Role at Watertown Arsenal.” Boston Traveler [Boston, MA], April 30, 1943. https://www.archives.gov/files/boston/exhibits/homefront/4.01-10-scrapbook.pdf#page=11.

“David M. March.” Hartford Courant [Hartford, CT], October 24, 1972. Newspapers.com (370885726).

“The Defense Program and New England: Research for Defense.” Federal Reserve Bank of Boston Monthly Review, February 1955, 5. 

“Ground Broken in Natick for Army Research.” The Boston Globe [Boston, MA], April 19, 1952. Newspapers.com (49971924).

Joan Miriam March Davis, Official Military Personnel File, Department of Navy, National Archives Records Administration – St. Louis.

Joan Miriam March. Massachusetts, U.S., Birth Index, 1860–1970. Digital images. https://ancestry.com.

Joan M. March. California, U.S., Marriage Index, 1949-1959. Digital images. https://ancestry.com.

“March.” Hartford Courant [Hartford, CT], July 23, 1980. Newspapers.com (368486555).

Massachusetts. Essex County. 1940 U. S. Census. Digital images. https://ancestry.com.

“N.E. Ship Yards to Get ‘Fair Share’ of Liberty Ships.” The Boston Globe [Boston, MA], March 2, 1951. Newspapers.com (433570584).

“Receives Letter Telling of Son’s Army Promotion.” The Chandler News Publicist [Chandler, OK], December 20, 1951. Newspapers.com (907632476).

Secondary Sources

“The Adam Stanton House.” Adam Stanton House, Inc. Accessed December 18, 2024. https://www.adamstantonhouse.org/events.

“America on the Homefront.” National Archives at Boston. Last modified April 8, 2018. Accessed February 28, 2025. https://www.archives.gov/boston/exhibits/homefront.

“Joan M. March Davis.” Find a Grave. Updated September 12, 2015. Accessed October 23, 2024. https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/152224103/joan-m-davis.

“Joan Davis.” Hartford Courant [Hartford, CT], May 27, 2015. https://www.courant.com/obituaries/joan-davis-berlin-ct/. 

“Joan M. Davis.” National Cemetery Administration. Accessed March 6, 2025. https://gravelocator.cem.va.gov. 

“Joan M. Davis.” Veterans Legacy Memorial, U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs. March 6, 2025. https://www.vlm.cem.va.gov/JOANMDAVIS/404289.

Stremlow, Colonel Mary V.  A History of the Women Marines, 1946-1977. U.S. Government Printing Office, 1986.

This profile was funded by a grant from the United States Department of Veterans Affairs. The opinions, findings, and conclusions stated herein are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect those of the United States Department of Veterans Affairs.