{"id":8469,"date":"2026-09-26T13:30:00","date_gmt":"2026-09-26T13:30:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/itsveterans.com\/?p=8469"},"modified":"2026-09-26T13:30:00","modified_gmt":"2026-09-26T13:30:00","slug":"wwii-veterans-major-makeover-and-a-day-of-beauty","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/itsveterans.com\/?p=8469","title":{"rendered":"WWII Veteran\u2019s major makeover and a \u2018day of beauty\u2019"},"content":{"rendered":"<p class=\"tni-source-date\"><strong>Originally published:<\/strong> 2026-09-26T13:30:00+00:00. Historical source article: benefits, rules, amounts and deadlines may have changed. Check the official source for current information.<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">World War II Veteran Fannie Griffin-McClendon received a beauty surprise when her Phoenix VA\u2019s Community Living Center nurse brought her into one of the center\u2019s common areas.<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Griffin-McClendon\u2014one of the center\u2019s most beloved residents\u2014was presented with three handmade wigs from\u00a0Veteran-and woman-owned small business, Wigs Plus\u00a0Vets, through a partnership with VA.\u00a0The store exclusively serves service members and Veterans experiencing hair loss.<\/p>\n<div class=\"wp-block-image\">\n<figure class=\"alignright size-medium\"><figcaption class=\"wp-element-caption\">Ret. Maj. Fannie Griffin-McClendon, seated, gets a new look from a wig company that serves Veterans and service members.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Griffin-McClendon, 105, is a favorite at the Center, but she has an impressive military history, too. Once a squadron commander in the Air Force, her military career began in the Army. Today, she\u2019s the last surviving member of the\u00a06888th Central Postal Directory Battalion\u00a0(the \u201c<a href=\"https:\/\/news.va.gov\/136985\/6888th-central-postal-congressional-gold-medal\/\">Six Triple Eight<\/a>\u201d), the first and only all-Black, all-female battalion deployed overseas during\u00a0World War II. Expected to fail, they were tasked with clearing a backlog of millions of pieces of troop mail in six months, working in frigid, barely lit warehouses.<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">They famously cleared and sorted more than 17 million pieces of mail in half that time.<\/p>\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\">A day of beauty<\/h2>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">As the team unveiled three wigs for Griffin-McClendon to choose from, her expression shifted from delight to curiosity.<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">\u201cWhat made you all decide to do this for me?\u201d she asked.<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">\u201cWe wanted to honor you and show you something special today. It\u2019s a day of beauty,\u201d said Wigs Plus Vets President Leslie Williams.<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">With the help of VA staff and the Wigs Plus Vets stylists, she tried on each piece. Each wig seemed to spark a new wave of excitement, prompting laughter, poses struck in the mirror and comments about how she would turn heads down the hallway. She picked out her favorite, and the team is customizing it for her.<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The Wigs Plus Vets team said they were grateful for the experience.<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">\u201cWe wanted to honor her beauty, her history and her incredible energy,\u201d Williams added.\u00a0<\/p>\n<hr>\n<p class=\"tni-attribution\">Source: <a href=\"https:\/\/news.va.gov\/149819\/wwii-veterans-major-makeover-day-beauty\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener noreferrer\">U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs<\/a>. Its Veterans is an independent publication and is not affiliated with or endorsed by the U.S. government.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>World War II Veteran Fannie Griffin-McClendon received a beauty surprise when her Community Living Center nurse brought her into the center\u2019s common area.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":327,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-8469","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-u-s-veterans-health-care"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v28.5 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>WWII Veteran\u2019s major makeover and a \u2018day of beauty\u2019 - Its Veterans<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"World War II Veteran Fannie Griffin-McClendon received a beauty surprise when her Community Living Center nurse brought her into the center\u2019s common area.\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/itsveterans.com\/?p=8469\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"WWII Veteran\u2019s major makeover and a \u2018day of beauty\u2019 - 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