Agnes Meyer Driscoll Agnes Meyer Driscoll ( July 24 , 1889 - September 16 , 1971 ) was , known as " Miss Aggie " or " Madame X " , an American cryptanalyst during both World War I and World War II . Early years . Born in Illinois in 1889 , Agnes May Meyer moved with her family to Westerville , Ohio in 1895 where her father , Gustav Meyer , had taken a job teaching music at Otterbein College . In 1909 he donated the family home to the Anti - Saloon League which recently moved its headquarters to Westerville . Education . Meyer attended Otterbein College from 1907 - 1909 . In 1911 she received an A . B . degree from Ohio State University , majoring in mathematics , physics , foreign languages , and music . From her earliest days as a college student , she pursued technical and scientific studies . After graduation , she moved to Amarillo , Texas , where she was director of music at a military academy , and , later , chair of the mathematics department at the local high school . World War I and after . On June 22 , 1918 , about one year after America entered World War I , Agnes Meyer enlisted in the United States Navy . She was recruited at the highest possible rank of chief yeoman and was assigned to the Code and Signal section of the Director of Naval Communications . Except for a two - year hiatus , when she worked for a private firm , she would remain a leading cryptanalyst for the U . S . Navy until 1949 . Her efforts were not limited to manual systems ; she was involved also in the emerging machine technology of the time , which was being applied both to making and breaking ciphers . In her first days in the Code and Signal section , she co - developed one of the U . S . Navy ' s cipher machines , the " CM . " In 1923 , Agnes Meyer left the navy and joined the fledgling Hebern Electric Code Company as technical advisor . Although Hebern ' s company ultimately failed , its work in rotor technology would affect machine cryptography for years to come . She returned to the navy in the spring of 1924 . In August 1924 she married Michael Driscoll , a Washington , D . C . lawyer . In her thirty - year career , Agnes Driscoll broke Japanese Navy manual codes — the Red Book Code in the 1920s , and the Blue Book Code in 1930 , and in 1940 she made critical inroads into JN - 25 , the Japanese fleet ' s operational code , which the U . S . Navy exploited after the attack on Pearl Harbor for the rest of the Pacific War . In early 1935 , Agnes Driscoll led the attack on the Japanese M - 1 cipher machine ( also known to the U . S . as the ORANGE machine ) , used to encrypt the messages of Japanese naval attaches around the world . At the same time Agnes sponsored the introduction of early machine support for cryptanalysis against Japanese naval code systems . World War II and after . Early in World War II , Agnes Driscoll was engaged in the U . S . Navy ' s effort against the German naval Enigma machine , with this work being superseded by the US - UK cryptologic exchanges of 1942 - 43 . She worked under Laurance Safford and Joseph Rochefort . Mrs . Driscoll was part of the navy contingent that joined the new national cryptologic agencies , firstly the Armed Forces Security Agency in 1949 and then the National Security Agency in 1952 . She retired from Armed Forces Security Agency in 1959 . Death . She died in 1971 and is buried in Arlington National Cemetery . Honors . In 2000 she was inducted into the National Security Agency ' s Hall of Honor .