An Indiana County native whose work as a code breaker in the Cold War helped the United States uncover Soviet Union espionage has died at the age of 101.
Angeline Nanni, who was born in Creekside and was recruited out of her sister’s beauty salon in Blairsville during World War Two, passed away last Tuesday at St. Andrew’s Village. She began her undercover life with in Washington, D.C., in 1944, and was the last surviving code breaker on the top secret Venona Project, helping bring down Americans who spied on Americans on behalf of the Soviets.
On Indiana In the Morning on WCCS last December, Liza Mundy, the author of the book Code Girls and of a Smithsonian magazine article on Nanni, said the story of Angeline’s recruitment by the U.S. Army Signal Intelligence Service was not uncommon.
Mundy said Nanni’s postwar code breaking work, which would not be declassified until fifteen years after her 1980 retirement, was a groundbreaking counterintelligence effort at the height of the Cold War.
For the Smithsonian article, Mundy returned with Angeline to Arlington Hall in Washington, where she spent her code breaking career. Angeline Nanni was laid to rest in St. Bernard’s Cemetery on Saturday.
Liza Mundy appeared on Indiana In the Morning on WCCS to talk about the secret life of Angeline Nanni on December 17, 2018
