SSGT Ola A. Olsen

1915 – 2007

USAR

WWII

Ola Amanda Olsen was born November 22, 1915 in McGrew, Nebraska, to Ole Peter and Nellie Haggerty Olsen.

The family moved to Barrington about 1926, and Miss Olsen was employed as a filing clerk when she enlisted in the Women’s Army Corps on August 30, 1943.

The Women’s Army Corps was created during World War II to fill noncombat, non-nursing roles ranging from switchboard operators to mechanics to bakers and postal workers; 150,000 women served in the WAC during the war. 

Olsen served in the Pacific Theatre for the U.S. Army, and was honorably discharged as a Staff Sergeant on Christmas Day, 1945.

She was a member of Barrington VFW Post 7706 and a founding member of WAC Veterans in Chicago, which became a nationwide organization. She belonged to the Rebecca Organization, a women’s lodge, and was also a founding member of the Barrington School Credit Union.

Olsen worked for 25 years in the Administration of Countryside School District, now District 220.

Staff Sergeant Ola Olsen passed away on November 23, 2007 in Barrington, and is buried with her family in Evergreen Cemetery.

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Remember. Honor. Teach.

Courtesy of Signal Hill Chapter, National Society Daughters of the American Revolution.