The US Marine Corps Casualty Office in Washington DC in 1918.
When Ouida Mabel Okey, one
of the first women in the United States Marine Corps, was appointed a corporal
on May 23, 1919, her certificate of rank called her a “he”. But that wasn’t as
belittling as The Washington Times story on the organising and chartering
of Belleau Wood Post No 1 of the American Legion, which referred to Okey’s
group as “marinettes”.
Okey, born on September 4, 1893, in Graysville, Monroe, Ohio, enlisted on October 22, 1918, almost two years before she could vote. She was one of the 200 young women selected from 5000 applications for service in the Marine Corps Reserve. A graduate of Woodsfield High School and the Marietta Commercial College, Okey was assigned to the casualty section of the Adjutant and Inspector’s Department in Washington DC. She actively served until July 31, 1919, and was discharged in 1922.
On Christmas Eve 1919 Okey married bookkeeper William Jasper Sharp and moved with him to Cleveland. Okey’s husband died in 1955 and Ouida passed away in East Cleveland at the age of 80, on March 23, 1974, following a short illness.
Women Marines, including Ouida Okey, march in a 1919 military parade in Washington DC.
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