I was distressed to see cigarette butts and other debris around the bluff memorial to Anna Walker Wilson Steere. Litter is always offensive but it seems particularly so in the context of this amazing woman.
Anna "Tony" Walker Wilson was a Lieutenant Colonel and Women's Army Corps (WAC) Staff Director in the European Theater of Operations during World War II. She commanded 6,500 WACs. In the course of her service she received the Legion of Merit, the French Croix de Guerre and Legion of Honor, and the Order of the British Empire.
She arrived in England in April 1943 as WAC Staff Director, and held that post until July 1945 when she was returned to Washington for duty with the Army Ground Forces. She had a B.A. from Pomona, and M.A. from Claremont, and had also done post-graduate work at the University of California. Her mother lived in Studio City, CA.
Chapter XXI of this history of the WAC has more information about Colonel Wilson's work in the European theater.
Colonel Wilson is the woman with prematurely white hair pictured in the center of the photo above, taken on August 1, 1944, when she was 34 years old. In January 1946, a year and a half after the photo was taken, she married Lloyd (or Loyd) Victor Steere, age 47, in Frankfurt, Germany. Mr. Steere, of Claremont, and a veteran of World War I, was at the time of their marriage the deputy director of the Office of Political Affairs in the Office of Military Government of the United States. He had previously been acting director of food and agriculture of the United States Group Control Council, and before that Agricultural Commissioner in the U.S. Department of Agriculture. Mr. Steere was an alumnus of Pomona, and also had an MBA from Harvard. He had two adult sons from an earlier marriage.
After their marriage, the couple lived in Berlin, where both were stationed. Later, they lived in Washington D.C. and at some point returned to California. They resided in Pacific Palisades at the time of Lloyd's death at age 86 in 1985. Anna subsequently moved to Santa Monica, and died at age 89 in 1999.
Mrs. Steere's bluff tribute is engraved with an unusual and understated legend -- "In Loving Memory / Anna Walker Steere /Natural and Generous"-- that alludes to her personal qualities rather than her illustrious military career. Obviously there was much more to this woman than just her impressive recorded accomplishments. I'm glad there is a memorial to her at the bluffs.
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