Marjorie Ruth Deloach Heuer was born in Villa Grove, Illinois, on February 4, 1925 to Mr. and Mrs. George A. Deloach. Sadly, her brother Albert was killed fighting with the U.S. Army during the Battle of the Bulge.

Ruth volunteered to serve in the U.S. Navy’s all-female Women Accepted for Volunteer Emergency Service (WAVES) as a Hospital Apprentice First-Class (HA1). The numerous contributions of the WAVES proved to be a vital asset to winning the war. Congress was slow to recognize the need for women in the Navy, but President Roosevelt realized that servicewomen would be a wartime plus and signed the WAVES Corps into law on July 30, 1942.

Upon completion of her service in the U.S. Navy, Ruth attended Augustana College and the Lutheran Hospital School of Nursing in Moline and became a registered nurse in 1950.  The next year, on December 23, 1951, Ruth married Lyle C. Heuer, who served in the Army during the Korean War. Ruth retired from nursing in 1970. They had two sons and farmed outside Walcott in Scott County, Iowa, until Lyle’s retirement in 1992.

Ruth passed away on December 30, 2008, at the age of 82, survived by two sons and two grandchildren. Lyle preceded her in death in 2003. She was interred at Rock Island National Cemetery on May 6, 2009.


MARJORIE RUTH HEUER

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