| Daisy May Pratt Erd | |
| Birth Date: | 1882 |
| Birth Place: | Canada |
| Allegiance: | United States |
| Branch: | United States Navy Reserve |
| Rank: | Yeoman (F) |
| Spouse: | Louis Erd |
| Laterwork: | musician |
Daisy May Pratt Erd USNR (1882-1925) was a Canadian-born American songwriter and composer, and a naval Yeoman (F) in Boston, Massachusetts during World War I. After the war, she advocated for the recognition of women veterans.
Daisy May Pratt was born in Canada[1] and raised in Chicago, Illinois, where she taught music.[2]
Erd was a young mother of two and a piano teacher, when she enlisted in the United States Navy Reserve in 1917.[3] Soon she was the chief yeoman in charge of all the enlisted women working in the Boston Navy Yard. She opened a lunch room for the naval yard's employees, and created the Hingham Naval Training Station Band, for the recreation of recruits with musical skills.[4] Compositions by Erd included "We'll Carry The Star Spangled Banner Thru The Trenches", "Uncle Sam's Ships" (a tribute to the),[5] "Welcome Home", and "The Rear Admiral Wood One-Step" (written in honor of Spencer S. Wood).[1] She donated thousands of dollars in profits from these songs to the Naval Reserve Fund and the Naval Relief Society.[6] She was awarded a gold medal in 1918 by William R. Rush, commandant of the naval yard, "for merit, war service".[7]
After her active service, she helped to found the first women's post of the American Legion, in Boston, and was elected as commander of the post.[8] She successfully persuaded the American Legion's national executive committee in Washington D. C. to maintain the unique post's charter and Charlestown location, against some local opposition.[9] She advocated for a state bonus of $100 for women in Massachusetts who served in the Navy, and began a union to improve the women veterans' job prospects. "We did a man's job, and why shouldn't we be treated like the men are treated in the matter of bonuses?" she asked.[10] As a show of appreciation, the women of her American Legion post bought her ringside seats to a boxing match in Boston in 1921, assuring a reporter that "she will be tickled foolish when we tell her that she is going to the fight."[11]
Daisy May Pratt married Louis Erd, a barber. They had two daughters, Norma and Georgia. Daisy Pratt Erd died in 1925, from tuberculosis that she contracted during her naval service.