Cpl Jessie Carla Ruth Stewart (née Norman)
(1920 - 2008)
Profile
Cpl Jessie Carla Ruth Norman enlisted in the Women’s Army Corps (WAC) in 1943 and served as an Army Air Force WAC. She was one of twenty-nine Danish born WACs during the Second World War.
Jessie Carla Ruth Norman was born on 8 March 1920 in Hopolden near Valsølille, Denmark. She was adopted by enameller Martin Stanley Norman and Rosette Magdalene Sophie Norman (née Jensen).[1] Her adopted father was American, born in Illinois, USA, while her Danish born mother had left Denmark in 1913.[2] The parents was married in Texas in June 1916.[3]
Norman grew up in Chicago, working as an office clerk before the war.[4]
Norman enlisted in the Women’s Army Corps (WAC) in Enid, Oklahoma on 14 August 1943.[5] There is little information on her service. She served as an Army Air Force WAC overseas, serving in the control tower of an army air field in the United Kingdom.[6]
Norman married Cpl John Coleman Stewart in Aylesbury, Buckinghamshire, in December 1944.[7] They met in service overseas.
Norman died in Port Gibson, Mississippi, on 3 May 2008.[8]
Endnotes
[1] DNA: Parish register, Valsølille sogn.
[2] Ancestry: New York Passenger Lists, 1820-1957.
[3] Ancestry: Texas, U.S., Select County Marriage Records, 1837-1965.
[4] Ancestry: 1940 United States Federal Census.
[5] NARA: Electronic Army Serial Number Merged File, ca. 1938 - 1946 (Enlistment Records), RG 64: World War II Army Enlistment Records.
[6] Corporals Are Wed in England, Chicago Tribune, 17 Dec 1944, p. 15.
[7] Ancestry: England & Wales, Civil Registration Marriage Index, 1916-2005.
[8] Ancestry: U.S., Social Security Death Index, 1935-2014.