Shasta Lake veteran celebrates her 100th birthday
By Jim Schultz (Contact)
Monday, January 7, 2008
SHASTA LAKE -- Marie Noll may not be the nation's oldest female veteran, but she's certainly pretty close.
Noll, who turned 100 on Sunday and was feted at a birthday party at St. Michael's Catholic Church here, is simply a remarkable woman, her many friends and admirers say.
"I would say she's quite the pioneer," said Irene Castro, president of the NOR-CAL Chapter 111 of the Women's Army Corps Veterans Association.
It was, after all, fairly uncommon for women to join the military before the outbreak of World War II, she said.
A North Dakota native, Noll, a retired waitress who has lived at the Shasta Oaks Residential Care Home in Shasta Lake since 2000, said she joined the Women's Army Corps in 1935 while living in Southern California after being persuaded to do so by a friend, who also joined.
But, she said, she didn't get to serve with her friend, noting that she was sent to Massachusetts, while her friend was shipped elsewhere. As a private first class, Noll said she was assigned to transportation duty, and often drove half-ton trucks and other vehicles in the Women's Army Corps (WAC), and also ferried military brass to a variety of meetings and events.
"It had its ups and downs," she said of her military service and -- invoking that common refrain often heard in military circles -- "there was a lot of hurry up and wait."
Still, she said, she met a number of wonderful people, but left the WACs after about a year and a half to raise her brother's two children when his wife died in childbirth.
Noll, a Shasta County resident since the 1950s, worked for much of her life as a waitress and can still carry five dishes at once as she voluntarily helps around the cozy residential care home on Hill Boulevard.
"I can't even do that," said Phoebe de Peralta, the home's manager.
Noll, who credits the grace of God and clean living for her long life, said she's also been blessed to have so many friends.
"I have had lots and lots of friends throughout the years," she said. "And I'm so grateful for them."
Sixty-eight-year-old Judy Klump of Redding said she has been friends with Noll for about 40 years through their membership in the Young Ladies' Institute, a Catholic women's charity organization.
"When it started we were all young," she joked. "We've all aged a trifle."
Klump, who calls her friend a kind, fun-loving and "sweet" woman, also said she's a mean Scrabble player who's difficult to beat because, she suspects, her friend has memorized the game board.
"She cares for strategy," she said, adding that she seldom defeats her dear friend at the game. "And she's getting better," she said.
Reporter Jim Schultz can be reached at 225-8223 or at
jschultz@redding.com.
