OMAHA, Neb. — A 92-year-old woman has been buried in Nebraska with British military honors for a secret that she held for decades: her World War II service as a codebreaker of German intelligence communications.
The Omaha World-Herald reports that the Union Jack was draped over Jean Briggs Watters’ casket during her burial Monday. Watters died Sept. 15.
The tribute honored Watters for her role decoding for a top-secret military program led by British mathematician Alan Turing, who was the subject of the 2014 Oscar-winning film, “The Imitation Game .” Watters was among about 10,000 people, mostly women, who participated in the Allied effort to crack German communication codes throughout the war.
Watters was 18 when she enlisted in the Women’s Royal Naval Service. She and her husband retired to the U.S. in 1969.
