FAYETTEVILLE, Tenn. – Miss Stacey Pearl Posey, 79, of Fayetteville, died Tuesday at her residence. The funeral was to be today at 2 p.m. at the Gallant Funeral Home with James Ashworth and the Rev. Charles Jones officiating.
Burial was to be in State Line Cemetery.
Miss Posey, a native of Madison County, Ala., was a retired purchasing agent for NASA. She was a charter member of Lincoln Baptist Church and a Red Cross volunteer at Huntsville Hospital and Lincoln Regional Hospital.
Survivors include a sister, Ella Posey Ashworth of Huntsville, Ala., and several nieces and nephews.
Published in The Huntsville Times, August 11, 1994, p. B7, c6

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Stacey Pearl Posey, 79, of Fayetteville, Tenn., died Tuesday.
The funeral will be today at 2 p.m. at Gallant Funeral Home with James Ashworth and the Rev. Charles Jones officiating. Burial will be in State Line Cemetery.
Posey was a charter member of Lincoln Baptist Church and was a retired purchasing agent for NASA.
She is survived by a sister, Ella Ashworth of Huntsville.
Published in The Huntsville News, August 11, 1994, p. A3, c3

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Miss Stacey Posey, 79, a resident of South Lincoln Road, Fayetteville, and a retired purchasing agent for NASA, died Tuesday (Aug. 9, 1994) at her residence. Funeral services were held Thursday at Gallant Funeral Home with interment in State Line Cemetery. Gallant Funeral Home of Hazel Green, Ala., in charge of arrangements.
Published in The Elk Valley Times & Observer, August 17, 1994, p. 2A
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1942 The Huntsville Times, Tuesday, April 21, 1942, p. 1, c5
One Person Dead In Arsenal Fire
Two Others Injured; Names Not Released Until Identification
One person was killed and two injured in a fire in an unidentified plant at the Huntsville arsenal at about 11:45 today.
Arsenal officials,l in an effort to be absolutely sure of the identity of the people, released no names of either the dead or injured.
The persons were carried to the Huntsville hospital in civilian cars and Army ambulances.
Cause of the fire was not learned.
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1942 The Huntsville Times, Wednesday, April 22, 1942, p. 1, c2
Names Are Given In Arsenal Fire
Easter Posey, 22, Dead, Seven Other Persons Injured
A preliminary report made by U. S. army officials at the chemical warfare arsenal here said today that Miss Easter Posey, 22, chemical operator, was killed instantly and seven other persons suffered burns of varying degrees in a fire which swept through one of the temporary buildings at the plant at about 11:50 yesterday morning.
The fire of undetermined origin destroyed the building within an hour after its outbreak.
Conditions of Miss Stacey Posey, sister of the dead girl, and M. F. Carr, 45, both of whom suffered severe second and third degree burns, were described as "fair" by attendants at the Huntsville hospital this morning.
Other persons who received slight burns are: W. K. Denney, C. T. Edmiston, R. Butler, and A. Miller, all of whom are chemical plant workmen. M. Cutler was also treated for injuries to his eyes received from the chemicals in a fire extinguisher.
Further investigation is being conducted by army officials in an effort to determine the cause of the fire.
Funeral services for the victim will be held at 10 o'clock tomorrow morning at the State Line church with the Rev. Morgan Walker officiating.
Burial will follow at the State Line Cemetery with Higgins funeral home of Fayetteville directing.
Surviving are six brothers, Floyd, D. C., Bobby, Albert and Thurman Posey, all of Hazel Green. Ted Posey of Baltimore, Md., and three sisters. Mrs. Lomie Honie of Huntsville, Mrs. Ella Ashworth of Huntsville and Miss Stacey Posey, also of Huntsville.
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1942, The Huntsville Times, Thursday, April 23, 1942, p. 1, c6
Arsenal Employe Injured At Plant
Condition Of Miss Stacey Posey Said "Fair" Early Today
Jack Bradford, 20, of Scottsboro, who is employed as a laborer in the sheet metal shop at the arsenal, was taken to the Huntsville Hospital at about 8 o'clock last night, following an accident at the plant.
Details were not given, but it was reported that the boy had inhaled harmful fumes in the shop. Attendants described his condition as fair this morning.
The condition of Miss Stacey Posey, who was severely burned in a fire at the arsenal Tuesday, was also reported as fair, although she is not yet out of danger. M. F. Carr, burned in the same accident, was described as better, and attendants said he had a restful night.
Arsenal officials said that investigation of the fire, which destroyed on of the temporary buildings at the arsenal within an hour after its outbreak, was still being carried on today.
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The Huntsville Times, Sunday, May 30, 2021
By Leada Gore | [email protected]
First American woman killed in line of duty in World War II died in Alabama
It was April 21, 1942 and Easter Posey and her older sister, Stacey, were among the legions of American women who had entered the workforce to assist the U.S. war effort.
Just a year before, Congress had approved funds for the Army to construct a chemical manufacturing and storage facility at a site that became known as Huntsville Arsenal. Later, plans for an ordnance shell loading/assembly facility were announced and the site was eventually redesignated Redstone Arsenal.
With more men drafted for service, women were increasingly being called on to work in industrial settings. Their work at Redstone was important. And secretive.
'What you say and what you hear..."
"What you see and what you hear, when you leave, leave it here," one sign at the production facility advised workers.
Entry-level female employees like the Posey sisters earned $3.60 a day; male employees earned more. All employees who worked with hazardous materials received additional money - $5.76 an hour for men compared to $4.40 an hour for women.
The workers wore badges in different colors to represent the area where they worked. Workers in buildings 471 and 481 produced mustard gas, turning the eyes and skin of the employees a yellowish tone. Those who worked in other buildings making colored-smoke grenades had hair and skin that matched the dye – yellow, purple, green.

Warehouse 642
Easter – named for the holiday on which she was born – had just turned 22-years-old and was engaged to be married. On the morning of the explosion, she and her sister were working in Warehouse 642, which housed Huntsville Arsenal's first production pilot line of the M-54 thermate incendiary bomb, with Easter operating a mixing machine at one end of the building. Her sister had been moved to fill in for another worker, taking a position in the middle of the long warehouse.
At around 11:50 a.m., Stacey Posey heard a loud explosion and, looking up from her work, saw a fire and jumped from her stool to run. She fell but scrambled to her feet and was able to make it out of the burning building. She herself was on fire but the flames were extinguished by some men who had arrived at the warehouse.
Fire survivor Pauline Williams was one of the 30 people injured in the fire. She recounted her experience decades later.
"I remember waking up and asking the nurse, 'Where am I' My arms and head were bandaged and I was wrapped in a sheet. I looked like a mummy," she recalled, "It was bad."
Stacey Posey was taken to Huntsville Hospital where she remained for more than six months. Her sister, Easter, was the only fatality in the fire and is considered the first U.S. woman to die in the line of duty during World War II. She was buried beside several family members in the cemetery at the Stateline Methodist Church just across the Alabama line. Easter was remembered by her sister as an outgoing person who liked to meet and talk to new people.
No public reports
Because the work done at the warehouse was highly sensitive, no public reports of the accident were made in 1942. The few reports of the blaze said it came from an "undetermined origin."
Once she healed from her injuries, Stacey Posey returned to work at Redstone, though she later said she was nervous – particularly on rainy days – when the gel-type incendiary chemical used for the bombs was more likely to detonate.
Stacey Posey worked in personnel and never returned to the production line. She left the arsenal in 1945, only to return about a decade later where she worked in purchasing and contracting. She remained there until her retirement in 1981. She died in 1994.
The fire completely destroyed Warehouse 642 and the Army made no further attempt to manufacture the M-54 bomb in Huntsville after that time. Eventually, the storage buildings associated with the M-54 production line were torn down and the salvaged lumber was used for other projects.
Easter Posey's name lives on, however.
On May 10, 1994, the U.S. Army Missile Command honored Easter Posey and other female workers by renaming the former military recreation area in her honor. The plaque unveiled at the ceremony reads: "Dedicated to the Women Workers of Redstone and Huntsville Arsenals Who Gave Their Lives in Service to Their Country."
The recreation area and campground still exist.
The U.S. Army Aviation and Missile Life Cycle Management Command, or AMCOM, contributed to this report, as did the U.S. Army.
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