Cpl Louise Augusta Wilson (née Popp)
(1909 - 1980)
Profile
Tec 5 Louise Augusta Wilson enlisted in the Women’s Army Corps (WAC) in 1943. She was one of twenty-nine Danish born WACs during the Second World War.
Louise Augusta Popp was born in Copenhagen on 15 April 1909 to mechanical engineer Johan Ludvig Theodor Popp and Ingeborg Bodil Popp (née Jørgensen).[1] The parents were married on 3 January 1909 in Frederiksberg.[2] Her father and his colleague Frants Christian Støckel held several patents related to cleaning and filling bottles.[3] He visited the United States several times, before emigrating in 1912.[4]
Popp, her younger brother and her mother joined the father in 1914, arriving in New York from Copenhagen onboard SS Frederik VIII on 26 October 1914.[5] The family settled in Niagara Falls, New York.[6]Popp married Harold Duane Beckett in on 30 August 1934.[7] The couple lived in Niagara Falls. She worked as a switch board operator in the Niagara Permanent Savings & Loan Association.[8]
Her husband enlisted in the U.S. Army in August 1943, and served overseas as Staff Sergeant in the 5307th Composite Unit (Provisional) or Merrill’s Marauders. He was killed in action at Myitkyina, Burma, on 12 July 1944.[9]
Popp, now Mrs Beckett, enlisted as Private (A-217523) in the Women’s Army Corps (WAC) in Buffalo, New York, on 12 March 1943.[10] Popp served as a corporal in Italy. She was discharged on 8 September 1945.[11] She held the rank of Technician fifth grade (Tec 5) equivalent to corporal.
She met her future husband, Staff Sergeant Howard Cecil Wilson in Italy. They were married in Naples on 22 May 1945.[12] She died Raleigh, North Carolina, on 22 November 1980.[13]
Endnotes
[1] DNA: Parish register, Aldersro sogn.
[2] DNA: Parish register, Skt. Markus sogn.
[3] Ancestry: International Patents, 1890-2020.
[4] Ancestry: U.S., Passport Applications, 1795-1925.
[5] Ancestry: U.S., Passport Applications, 1795-1925.
[6] Ancestry: 1920, 1930 and 1940 United States Federal Census.
[7] Ancestry: New York, U.S., County Marriage Records, 1847-1849, 1907-1936.
[8] Ancestry: U.S., City Directories, 1822-1995.
[9] Ancestry: U.S., Headstone Applications for Military Veterans, 1925-1963.
[10] Ancestry: U.S., World War II Army Enlistment Records, 1938-1946.
[11] Ancestry: U.S., Department of Veterans Affairs BIRLS Death File, 1850-2010.
[12] Mrs. Howard C. Wilson, The News and Observer, 8 Jul 1945, p. 22.
[13] Ancestry: U.S., Veterans' Gravesites, ca.1775-2019.