How a WWII-era job at the Andrew Johnson Hotel made a Knoxville woman a trailblazer

Eighty-two years ago, Lula Belle Wilson Phelps made history as Knoxville's first female hotel room clerk.

In 1942, as World War II continued into its third year, women across the United States were joining the workforce. Forty percent more women were employed in Knoxville in 1942 than the year prior, acquiring jobs ranging from stenography to truck driving, the Knoxville News Sentinel reported that year. Across sectors, women were filling positions that had previously only been held by men.

For several years prior to 1942, Phelps worked as the cashier at the Andrew Johnson Hotel, and then she took on a new role: hotel room clerk. This made Phelps "the first woman to hold such a position in Knoxville," manager Harold Archer told the News Sentinel in 1942.

The job of hotel room clerk could be difficult at times, and especially with the war's labor shortage. One anonymous "ex-hotel room clerk" wrote to the News Sentinel in 1944 describing their challenges: "In this capacity I have found that about 75 percent of the public does not know there is a war in Europe. The traveling public has a chronic case of the 'gripes' that only service in the trenches would cure."

The letter went on: "The traveling man who makes a 'last minute reservation' expects the room clerk (we are only human) to pull out a magic wand and with a 'hokus pokus' gesture put him in a room. This same person who finds no room becomes 'very important' especially if others are waiting at the desk and he starts firing a million useless and foolish questions at you."

Phelps was familiar with the hard work her profession required, Phelps' granddaughter Susan Hicks said recently. "My grandmother divorced in 1931. You didn’t do that. She became a single mother in 1931 and never remarried, so she was always a working mom. Back then, that didn’t really happen a lot."

Phelps enjoyed the work, Hicks told Knox News. Even after the war, Phelps retained her in the hotel room clerk role.

Her family didn't pass judgment on her position, either. "I think it was natural to that family that they worked. Everybody pitched in and worked and paid the bills," Hicks said.

Years after Phelps retired from her post at the Andrew Johnson Hotel, employment once again brought a family member to what was by then called the Andrew Johnson Building. The hotel had opened in 1929, but by 1979, plans were being made to convert it into office space. In 1992, the building became home to Knox County Schools. As an administrative secretary for KCS, Hicks reported for work at the same Knoxville location her grandmother once did.

"Time has a way of turning back around," Hicks said.

More than anything, Hicks is proud of her grandmother's trailblazing. "She was very much a woman of strength. She was very brave to take the steps that she did. I’ve always admired her for that."

Hayden Dunbar is the storyteller reporter. Email hayden.dunbar@knoxnews.com.

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This article originally appeared on Knoxville News Sentinel: Andrew Johnson Hotel in Knoxville hired first woman hotel clerk 1942