Betty K. Beck, daughter of Mr. and Mrs. S. J. Beck, Route 1, has received orders to report for indoctrination training in the marine corps women's reserve at Hunter college, New York City, Monday, April 19. Miss Beck is a graduate of Gates Business college in 1942, has been employed by the
George J. O'Donnell company of Waterloo as a stenographer. She enlisted March 18 in the marines at Des Moines.
Source: The Courier (Waterloo IA) April 11, 1943 (photo included)
Pvt. Betty Beck, daughter of Mr. and Mrs. Svend J. Beck, Route 1, Waterloo, is now stationed in a supply depot in San Francisco, Cal., after completing her recruit training in the United States marine corps women's reserve at Hunter college in New York.Before entering service, Beck was employed by the George J. O'Donnell company. She is former student at Gates business college.
Source: The Courier, Waterloo IA - July 4, 1943
A Waterloo girl, Pfc. Betty Beck, U.S. marine corps women's reserve, is shown in this picture at her new assignment in the war bond office, department of the Pacific, San Francisco, Cal. Seated is Staff Sgt. R. O. Stuthen. Private Beck enlisted in the marines March 19, 1943. The daughter of Mr. and Mrs. Svend Beck, Route 1, she was formerly employed by the George J. O'Donnell company, Waterloo.
Source: The Courier, Waterloo IA - July 23, 1943 (photo included)
First Birthday Reached For Women of Marines
The 325 or more Iowa women who preferred service to their country and a forestry green uniform to civilian life will be among the approximate 12,000 members of the United States marine corps women's reserve observing their first birthday.
None of them had a chance to see the halls of Montezuma or the shores of Tripoli, but each one enlisted has freed a marine for service overseas. Members of the corps serve only within continental United States.
Activities of the following Iowa members of the marines are representative of the service of the corps:
[excerpt]
Sergeant Betty K. Beck, Waterloo, employed in the war bond office at the depot of supplies, San Francisco, Cal.
Source: The DesMoines Register, February 13, 1944 (photo included)
Sgt. Beck Wed to Pvt. Uris
Today Mr. and Mrs. S. J. Beck, 235 Denver street, announce the marriage of their daughter, Staff Sgt. Betty Katherine Beck and Pfc. Leon M. Uris of Baltimore, Md.
The double ring nuptial ceremony was performed Jan. 5 in St Ansgar's Lutheran church in San Francisco, Cal. The couple is now residing at 909 Franklin street in San Francisco where both are employed in the depot of supplies of the marine corps.
The bride is a graduate of Gates Business college and was employed as a stenographer by the George J. O'Connell Co. prior to her enlistment Mar. 18, 1943. Private Uris has served 18 months in the south Pacific with the Second marine division.
Source: The Courier (Waterloo IA) January 21, 1945 (photo included)
Glory of the U.S. Marines Is Captured in 'Battle Cry'
Battle Cry, by Leon Uris; Putnam, $3.75
The author's note reads "This book is dedicated to the United States Marines, and to one in particular - Staff Sergeant Betty Beck Uris." The "one in particular" is the author's Iowa-born wife and the mother of his three children. And to her Leon Uris has dedicated a rollicking, sprawling, action-loaded novel about a radio team of the 2nd battalion, 6th regiment, 2nd marine division, in the Pacific in World War II.
<snip>
'To Betty'
It isn't often a book is dedicated to an Iowa girl, as is 'Battle Cry', by Leon Uris. Betty Beck Uris, daughter of Mr. and Mrs. Svend J. Beck of Waterloo, was born 30 years ago in Maquoketa, where her father, who is in the construction business, was then building a school. Later the family settles in Black Hawk county and Waterloo. After graduating from Orange township high school, Mrs. Uris attended a Waterloo business college, and enlisted in the women's marines in Des Moines in 1943.
She is definitively not portrayed anywhere in her husband's novel, says her mother, who has just returned to Waterloo from a three-month visit in Larkspur, Cal. with Leon and Betty Uris and their three children - Karen, 6, Mark, 2, and Michael, who was born Feb 19. Uris a native of Baltimore was a radio operator (private first class) in the 2nd marine division and saw all the action his book describes. Sent to Oak Knoll naval hospital (a casualty of asthma and tropical fever), he was then transferred to the San Francisco war bond office where his boss was Staff Sgt. Beck. Uris worked for a time in the circulation department of the San Francisco Call-Bulletin, but now devotes full time to writing, and is at work on a second novel.
Source: The DesMoines Register, April 26, 1953
