“Looking back in my scrapbook, I’m learning more about what I really did than when I was doing it.”

Janice M. Bickerstaff Yeoman

Janice Bickerstaff Yeoman singing vocal solo War: Vietnam War, 1961-1975 Service Location: Rhode Island; Massachusetts Status: Civilian Place of Birth: Pawtucket, RI

At the age of 3, Janice Bickerstaff began dancing, and by 13, she was talented enough to be a teacher and to join the only volunteer USO troupe in the country. Working from her hometown of Pawtucket, Bickerstaff performed with the Teens and Twenties, a group of young performers who traveled to bases in Rhode Island and Massachusetts, once even performing on the deck of the aircraft carrier USS Essex. At the time, her focus was on the show; only now does she fully understand what a service she was performing.