Zella Marguerite (Stackhouse) Clary

September 15, 1905 – July 7, 1990

Zella Marguerite Clary, 84, died on July 7, 1990.

Born in Oklahoma on September 15, 1905, she was the daughter of Azor J. and Alphretta Alice Wines Stackhouse. She graduated as salutatorian of the 1924 class. Following her graduation she attended summer school at the Central State Teachers College in Edmond, Oklahoma, and began her teaching career in and around the rural Noble County schools.

On May 22, 1927, Zella and fellow PHS alumni, Auburn “Charles” Ward, were married at her parents’ home in Perry. The couple made their home in Tulsa where Mr. Ward was connected with the American Telephone and Telegraph company. While living in Tulsa, Zella worked as a telephone operator and continued her education at the University of Tulsa where she graduated in August, 1931. Following the couple’s divorce, she resumed teaching in the rural schools.

She and Dock Harold Weems were married in Perry on June 6, 1938. In April, 1943, after teaching at the rural schools five and one half years, Zella and five other Oklahoma school teachers enrolled in the Women’s Army Auxiliary Corps (WAAC). The WAAC was created in 1942 as an auxiliary unit to the US Army. Its mission was to free up soldiers for combat by taking on administrative duties. She trained at Fort Devens, Mass. In 1943, the WAAC was converted to an active duty unit called the Women’s Army Corps (WAC). Zella was stationed for 13 months at Casablanca, Morocco for duty with the North African division of the air transport command. Most of her time in Morocco was spent as a file clerk at the headquarters of the air transport command, but she was able to spend one furlough in Italy and toured Rome. She was discharged on November 24, 1945.

Zella and Dock were divorced in 1947. She reenlisted for six years and was stationed at Arlington, Virginia, in the Pentagon, serving special activities, and at bases in Missouri.

She served a total of twelve years in the WAC, through both World War II and the Korean war, before retiring in 1964.

In her retirement she met a fellow veteran, George Earl Clary. They were married and made their home in Washington, D. C.

Preceding her in death were her parents; brothers, Henry Azor Stackhouse and Clarence M. Stackhouse; and sister, Mary Muriel Stackhouse Whitmarsh.

Her husband, George, survives.

Burial was in the US Soldiers’ and Airmen’s Home National Cemetery in Washington, D. C.