WTVR

A Chesterfield County post office is being renamed after World War II code breaker and former Midlothian resident Dorothy Braden Bruce.

Congresswoman Abigail Spanberger proposed renaming the Sycamore Square postal branch after Bruce. President Donald Trump signed Spanberger’s legislation on Monday.

The U.S. Post Office facility located at 1201 Sycamore Square Drive in Midlothian will now be renamed the “Dorothy Braden Bruce Post Office Building.”

“We thank Congresswoman Spanberger for her skill in achieving enactment of a public law dedicating the Sycamore Square Post Office to our mother, Dorothy Braden Bruce,” said Nancy Robertson, Jim Bruce, and Virginia Evans – Children of Dorothy Braden Bruce.

Dorothy Bruce was recruited by the U.S. military during World War II to serve in a top-secret group of code-breaking women who worked on uncovering the location of Japanese warships in the Pacific.

“We also thank author Liza Mundy for revealing the secret story of women code breakers in WWII, a story almost lost to history,” the children continued in a statement. “Even at age 97, our mother’s remarkable memory helped Liza interpret and validate declassified archive records and bring to life the challenges and successes of these 10,000 women code breakers who kept their secret for nearly 70 years. There is no monument to these young women, handpicked and secretly summoned to hasten the end of WWII, saving the lives of thousands of Americans. We are grateful that this public building is a part of that remembrance.”

Bruce passed away in 2019 at the age of 99.