Former Waterloo Girl May Be First to Report for WAAC
DES MOINES, (AP) – Miss Christie M. Tollefson, 36, of Montville, N. J., a native of Waterloo, Ia., reported Saturday to the women’s army auxiliary corps training school at For Des Moines.
The school opens Monday.
WAAC faculty officer said she was one of the first, if not the first, enrollees to make her appearance here. She was told to come back Monday and she went to the home of her sister, Mrs. Robert L. Beal, who lives here.
Miss Tollefson is a dramatics teacher in Columbia high school, South Orange, N. J.
She graduated from East High in Waterloo in 1923 and Iowa State Teachers college, Cedar Falls, in 1927. She taught at Marion, Ia., until 1929 and obtained her masters degree in speech and the following year at Columbia university, New York.
She spent a year in Washington as secretary to the director of the national advisory board on educational research.
She has been a South Orange teacher for approximately 10 years, except for one year’s graduate work in the Yale university school of drama, New Haven, Conn.
Miss Tollefson is the daughter of Mr. and Mrs. T. l. Tollefson, 410 Clay street. Her father is an Illinois Central railroad engineer.
Source: The Des Moines Morning Register, Des Moines, Iowa, [date omitted], 1942
Waterloo Girls in WAAC
Both former students of Iowa State Teachers college, Cedar Falls and Columbia university, New York, the Misses Pauline McNally and Christine Tollefson of Waterloo, are officer candidates in the women's army auxiliary corps at Fort Des Moines.
Miss McNally, daughter of Mr. and Mrs. T.M. McNally, 2720 East Fourth street, has been employed in the children's department of the west side public library this past year, and was employed there three years before taking a course in the Columbia university's library school of science, graduating in 1940.
Miss Tollefson, daughter of Mr. and Mrs. T.L. Tollefson, 410 Clay street, has been teaching in the Columbia high school, South Orange, N.J. for the past 10 years.
Source: The Courier, Waterloo, IA - August 7, 1942 (photo included)
Mr. and Mrs. T.L. Tollefson, 410 Clay street, attended graduation exercise of the women's auxiliary army corps at Fort Des Moines, Ia., when their daughter Miss Christie Tollefson, was commissioned a third officer, corresponding in rank to a second lieutenant in the army. Before jogging the corps, Miss Tollefson was a school teacher in New Jersey.
Source: The Courier, Waterloo, IA - August 30, 1942
Waterloo Girl in WAACs Will Be Recruiter
Miss Christie Tollefson, daughter of Mr. and Mrs. T.L. Tollefson, 410 Clay street, soon will be assigned to recruiting office duty, following her commission as a third officer in the women's army auxiliary corps at Fort Des Moines.
Miss Tollefson, a graduate of Iowa State Teachers college and Columbia university, taught dramatics in Marion, N.J. for 10 years, but found the WAAC officer training school "more strenuous and thrilling than the dress rehearsals of a play."
Source: The Courier, Waterloo, IA - September 14, 1942 (photo included)
Captain Tollefson Overseas
Capt. Christie Tollefson, left, formerly 410 Clay street, Waterloo, was one of the three Wac officers to receive indoctrination on climate and shopping from Maj. Ge. F.H.N. Davidson, center, of the British army staff in Washington, D.C., before leaving for England to attend the Auxiliary Territorial Service wing of the British staff college. He warned them, to take along their winter flannels. In the picture also is CApt. Annie Ruby Pearson, Bamberg, S.C., right.
Miss Tollefson and her two companions are attending a four-month course in England under a reciprocal arrangement whereby Wacs and ATS women are being trained for joint staff work with the two Allied forces. Three high-ranking officers of the British ATS are attending school; at Fort Leavenworth, Kan.
Source: The Courier, Waterloo, IA - December 12, 1944 (photo included)
Capt. Christie Tollefson Wed at Beal Home
A Wac captain, who was in the first Wac class at Ft. Des Moines, became the bride of an army colonel at 11 o'clock Friday morning when Capt. Christie Tollefson, daughter of Mr. and Mrs. T.L. Tollefson, 410 Clay street, was married to Col. Carl T. Schmidt, son of J.F. Schmidt of San Francisco, Cal.
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To Live in Washington
They will reside in Washington, D.C. where the groom is now stationed since his return from Europe where he served with the general staff. He entered the service in 1941 following a period as instructor in the economic department of Columbia university, New York. He received his doctor's degree from the University of California at Berkeley, Cal.
Captain Schmidt is now on terminal leave after two years in the European theater. She returned to this country in May. A graduate of Iowa Tate Teachers college, Cedar Falls, she received her master's degree at Columbia university and took graduate work in drama and English at Yale university, New Haven, Conn. She was an instructor at Maplewood, N.J. before her enlistment in the Wac.
Source: The Courier, Waterloo, IA - July 19, 1946 (wedding photo included)
