1LT Maggie Ingeborg Carlson (née Rasmussen)
(1899 - 1969)
Profile
1LT Maggie Ingeborg Carlson enlisted in the Women’s Army Corps (WAC) in 1942. She was one of twenty-nine Danish born WACs during the Second World War. Before and after the war, she worked in the U.S. Foreign Service in, among other places, Denmark.
Maggie Ingeborg Rasmussen was born on 21 December 1899 in Frederiksberg, Denmark, to machinist Anders Frederik Rasmussen and Mathilde Kathrine Rasmussen (née Pedersen).[1] She was educated in Denmark and Switzerland and graduated in business science. She worked as a secretary in a law firm in Copenhagen in 1919-20.
She married Carl Andrew Carlson, a citizen of the United States, in Copenhagen on 11 October 1920.[2] He was born in the United States by Swedish immigrants, but lived Switzerland from 1910 to 1915 and in Copenhagen, Denmark, since 1915.[3] He was a business owner in Chicago at the time of the marriage.[4] The couple returned to the United States and settled in Muskegon County, Michigan.[5] Her husband died in 1936.[6]
Carlson seems to have returned to Denmark at this point. She was an apprentice clerk at the US Embassy in Copenhagen from 1 March 1937, The documents available suggests that she returned to the United States from Europe as late as in August 1941. She arrived in New York from Lisbon, Portugal, onboard the SS West Point on 1 August 1941.[7]
Carlson enlisted in the Women’s Army Corps (WAC) on 21 September 1942 in Washington, DC (A-303581).[8] She served overseas and was promoted to the rank of 1st Lieutenant. She was discharged in 1945. When she arrived in New York from Copenhagen on 10 June 1947 onboard the SS Falstria it is recorded that he last departure from the United States was on 1 December 1943.[9] It is not clear, if she was in Copenhagen while enlisted as a WAC. It is presumed from the context, that she was not an Army Air Force WAC.
She returned to the Foreign Service and served in Copenhagen, eventually, as the Vice Consul. In January 1949, she was posted to Munich, and returned to the Department of State, Division of Foreign Reporting Services, in August that year.[1] This division had been created in 1945 ‘to assure that the offices and divisions of the Department and other departments and agencies of the Government are effectively supplied with the information necessary to discharge their responsibilities.’[11]
In August 1950, she departed indefinitely from the United States ‘indefinitely’, according to the records, for Gothenburg, Sweden, onboard the SS Stockholm.[12] She is recorded to have re-entered the United States from Le Havre, France, onboard the American SS United States on 20 March 1962. Her occupation was recorded as Department of State.[13]Carlson died seven years later, on 20 October 1969. She is buried at the Arlington National Cemetery in Virginia.[14]
Endnotes
[1] DNA: Parish register, Frederiksberg sogn.
[2] Ancestry: U.S., Consular Reports of Marriages, 1910-1949.
[3] Ancestry: U.S., Passport Applications, 1795-1925.
[4] DNA: Parish register, Citadels sogn.
[5] Ancestry: U.S., Find A Grave Index, 1600s-Current.
[6] Ancestry; U.S., National Cemetery Interment Control Forms, 1928-1962.
[7] Ancestry: New York, U.S., Arriving Passenger and Crew Lists (including Castle Garden and Ellis Island).
[8] Ancestry: U.S., World War II Army Enlistment Records, 1938-1946.
[9] Ancestry: New York, U.S., Arriving Passenger and Crew Lists (including Castle Garden and Ellis Island).
[10] Register of the Department of State, April 1, 1950, p. 82.
[11] Davis, Reorganization of the Office of Foreign Service, The American Foreign Services Journal, Vol 22, No. 5, May 1945, p. 20.
[12] Ancestry: U.S., Departing Passenger and Crew Lists, 1914-1966.
[13] Ancestry: New York State, Passenger and Crew Lists, 1917-1967.
[14] Ancestry: U.S., Veterans' Gravesites, ca.1775-2019.