What’s on Netflix? Six Triple Eight tells the story of the Ohio WWII hero

On By Littum

One of the most popular movies on Netflix this holiday season is ‘The Six Triple Eight,’ which tells the true story of an Ohio woman who made history during World War II.

In the film, Kerry Washington plays US Army Maj. Charity Adams Earley, a pioneering officer of the Women’s Army Corps.

The 6888. Central Postal Battalion was tasked with sorting through a three-year backlog of undelivered mail that amounted to 17 million pieces to and from soldiers and their families.

Born in 1918 and raised in South Carolina, Adams Earley came to Ohio to attend Wilberforce College to study mathematics, Latin and physics. She returned to South Carolina to be a school teacher, but in the summers she took graduate classes at Ohio State Universityaccording to her biography published by the National Women’s History Museum.

In 1942, she joined the Women’s Army Corps and became a member of the first officer candidate school. In 1944, Adams Earley was chosen to be the commander of the first Black WAC unit sent overseas.

The Netflix film, directed by Tyler Perry, tells the story of Adams Earley and her battalion’s grit and ingenuity during the mail sorting mission.

She left the service in 1948 after attaining the rank of lieutenant colonel. Adams Earley returned to Ohio State University to complete his master’s degree and later work for the Veterans Administration in Cleveland.

She moved to Switzerland where her husband, Stanley Earley II, studied medicine. The couple returned to the States in 1952, settled in Dayton and had two children.

Adams Earley became active in Dayton’s civic affairs, serving on the boards of Sinclair Community College, the American Red Cross Dayton Chapter, the Dayton Metro Housing Authority, the Dayton Opera Company, and the Dayton Power & Light Co.

The Charity Adams Earley Girls Academy in Dayton is named after her.

Adams Earley died in 2002 at the age of 83 in Dayton.

Laura Bischoff is a reporter for the USA TODAY Network Ohio Bureau, which serves the Columbus Dispatch, Cincinnati Enquirer, Akron Beacon Journal and 18 other affiliated news organizations across Ohio.