For Marjorie Marshman, “Once a Marine, always a Marine.”
And as she turned 100 this week, she remains pretty devoted to the Iowa Hawkeyes, too.
But birthplaces aside, it’s Marshman’s enlistment in the Marine Corps during World War II and decades of service to veterans that has helped define her long life and earn special recognition from Wisconsin Department of Veterans Affairs Secretary Mary Kolar during a birthday celebration Wednesday at the Wickshire Assisted Living Facility on the North Side.
Born in tiny Bayard, Iowa, population 600, Marshman was one of nine children who grew up with little and “didn’t know any better to expect anything better.” There were 28 people in her high school graduating class.
After graduating, she moved to Des Moines and worked as a maid, the responsibilities of keeping a household clean part of her upbringing. “But boy, I mean to tell you, you had to do it right.” When World War II began on Dec. 7, 1941, she was cleaning someone’s home as a live-in maid.
On Feb. 13, 1943, she enlisted in the Marines, the same day it became the last branch of the military to admit women. Following her six brothers into the service, she completed basic training at Camp Lejeune, North Carolina, before being stationed at Cherry Point, North Carolina, where she worked in personnel. She served from Dec. 3, 1943, until Jan. 26, 1946, leaving with the rank of corporal.
After her discharge, Marshman had a friend from the Corps who was living in Albany, Wisconsin, and together they moved to Madison and shared an apartment on the 300 block of Langdon Street among UW-Madison’s fraternities and sororities. She got work with the state, initially with the then-Public Welfare Department and later with the university’s School of Nursing. She lived for decades on East Dayton Street and worked for the state for 39 years, retiring in 1985. When she wasn’t working, she liked to bowl.
After her retirement, she served as chaplain and adjutant for American Legion Post 501 in Madison.
In addition, she was a member of the Marine Corps Association, Marine Corps League, Women Marines Association, United Women Veterans and the Women in Service for America Memorial. She was active in the American Legion Auxiliary and Veterans of Foreign Wars Auxiliary, the Madison Veterans Council, Dane County Veterans Service Commission, AMVETS and Pearl Harbor Association, and she was the first woman to volunteer with the Madison Firing Squad.
She also volunteered at the William S. Middleton Memorial Veterans Hospital, where she accumulated 9,524 hours over 30 years.
In 2009, she received the Wisconsin Department of Veterans Affairs woman veteran of the year award.
What inspired you to join the military?
The Lord told me to join. I suppose I could find some exciting story: the glamor of it all or something. At one time or another, all of my brothers were in the service, but during the war, it was two brothers and myself. One brother in the Air Force, one in the Army, and of course I was in the Marines — the best!
Did you do boot camp?
Oh sure, we did boot camp just like the men.
What was your job?
They trained me in administration. I had taken typing in high school and I became pretty good at typing. After the Corps, it provided me with a job for many years.
After discharge, why did you devote so much to organizations and volunteering?
Friends were an integral part of me being active in the military organizations, and retirement gave me more time to volunteer. It just meant something to me. It was in my heart, I guess.
Why did you stay in Madison?
Because I like it. There isn’t anything I’m looking for that I don’t have.
My upbringing. My parents taught me so much you can’t learn in a book. We didn’t have any money. We didn’t have anything. But there must have been something there. I owe my parents everything in the world.
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