WWII Navy WAVES vet is honored at celebration of 100th birthday
When Marjorie B. Harrison Thomas was 21 and the world was at war, she did something few women of her generation did — she joined the U.S. Naval Women’s Reserve, or WAVES.
On Sept. 22, 1942, 10 months after the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor propelled America into World War II, she was sworn in and ordered to report to Smith College in Massachusetts for training.
Marjorie, who turned 100 recently, was honored for her service on April 26 by the Women Veterans of Berks County,
A cadre of women veterans saluted her at a gathering outside
Amity Place senior living community in Douglassville, where she is a resident.
Marjorie waved a tiny American flag as the women veterans sang “Happy Birthday.”
Betsy Rimby, the group’s liaison to retired veterans, stressed the need to honor women who served in World War II.
“It’s very important to honor these women,” Rimby said. “It means so much to them, their families and us, too.”
Heather Thomas of Muhlenberg Township said her mother possessed a strong sense of duty as a young woman and throughout her life.
“She wanted to serve her country,” Thomas said. “She was very civic minded and patriotic.”
Even before enlisting in the WAVES, Marjorie was a corporal in the Berks County Chapter of the American Red Cross.
After working days in advertising at Pomeroy’s department
store, she would drive to Indiantown Gap to serve coffee and donuts to servicemen returning from war-torn Europe and the Pacific theater.