American Legion Auxiliary
Unit 51 Leadership

Bobbie Talbert– President
Luci Evans– Vice President
Donna Moser– Treasurer
– Secretary
Melody Moore– Chaplain
Sandra Peters– Historian
Leianne Bost – Sergeant at Arms

The American Legion Auxiliary (ALA) is a separate entity from the American Legion that shares the same values. Composed of spouses, mothers, daughters, granddaughters, and sisters of American war veterans. Founded in 1919, the ALA is dedicated to serving veterans, military, and their families.

After the end of World War I in 1918, 20 officers who had served in the American Expeditionary Forces were asked to suggest ideas for improving troop morale. One officer, U.S. Army Lieutenant Colonel Theodore Roosevelt Jr., proposed an organization of veterans, the American Legion. After its formation in 1919, a number of existing women’s organizations wanted to become the official affiliate of the Legion. The committee decided to create a new organization made up of the women most closely associated with the men of the Legion. This Auxiliary would perform those phases of Legion activities that were more suitably performed by women. In less than one year, 1,342 local units in 45 states of the Women’s Auxiliary to the American Legion had been organized.

In 1954, the American Legion Auxiliary organized “Operation Book Swap” in which hardcover books were handed out to children in exchange for turning in ten comic books. This was largely a response to the publication and publicity of Fredric Wertham’s book Seduction of the Innocent. The collected comics were then publicly burned or destroyed.

Auxiliary Membership Eligibility

In 2019, the American Legion’s National Convention voted to replace the word “wife” with “spouse” in the organization’s constitution and bylaws section regarding eligibility to be a member of the American Legion Auxiliary; since then, male and female spouses of U.S. veterans have been eligible. Previously, only female spouses of U.S. veterans were.