Durham VA Hospital

State's Mates presented their fashion show on April 1, 1961 for veterans at a nearby Durham hospital.

Particularly in the later years of the organization, State's Mates participated in an array of community service activities that were geared toward the local Raleigh community. Although in the late 1950s and early 1960s, State's Mates, in conjunction with the American Legion Auxiliary,gave several performances of their annual fashion and variety shows at a veteran’s hospital in Durham, North Carolina. While most of the documentation of these events is embedded within annual reports, there is a rare scrapbook excerpt showcasing the fashion show performance at the Durham hospital on April 1, 1961. The photographs from the event depict several State's Mates members and their children modeling several fashionable outfits on-stage for the local veterans.  This is the only civic activity in which the children of State's Mates members were encouraged to participate in the project.

Many State's Mates members lived in Vetville until it's demolition in the late 1950s.  Vetville housed veterans and their families.

Although the men at the hospital probably were not very interested in the fashions that the group modeled, the fact that this organization wanted to perform and visit with the patients probably meant a lot to them. This is an instance where the display of feminine beauty and elegance was used as a tool to provide entertainment for a group in need. This performance differs from other civic activities in that it focused more on amusing the patients rather than donating monetary or material support. The Durham hospital was likely a priority to State's Mates because some of their husbands themselves may have been veterans. Vetville, which house many State's Mates and their families, was originally created to house married veterans of World War II; later, it housed married veterans of the Korean War, some of who may have been the husbands of women in the organization.  This connection between the patients and the husbands of State's Mates members may have been a factor in their decision to use their beauty and sexuality as a civic tool; as the Dorothea Dix portion of the exhibit shows, State's Mates utilized very different methods of volunteering at the two hospitals.

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