Marjorie Jane Schacht

Marjorie Jane Ward Schacht of 92 Wainwright Drive, Veteran’s Administration Home, passed away there

on May 4, 2018. She was 96 years of age.

Marjorie was born on June 19, 1921, at her grandmother Alice Boomer’s home in Idaho Falls, Idaho. She was the second oldest daughter of Nephi and Zula Ward. She grew up in Salmon, Idaho, and graduated from high school there. She was a member of the Salmon Ward, Lost River Stake of the Mormon Church. She attended the University of Idaho, southern branch at Pocatello, Idaho for two years. She and her best friend from high school enlisted together in the Women’s Army Auxiliary Corps (W.A.A.C.) on September 15, 1942.

While stationed at Fort Knox, Kentucky, Marjorie attained the rank of Sergeant. During that time, Congress also changed the status of all WAACS to the Women’s Army Corps. Marjorie was then assigned to Camp Crowder, Missouri, for additional training prior to her overseas deployment to Oro Bay, New Guinea.

Marjorie’s duties while in New Guinea and the Philippines were as a cryptographer, where she coded and decoded messages from all over the world. She was overseas 18 months.

While in New Guinea, Marjorie met a young artillery Sergeant named Erv Schacht, at a camp dance. They both returned home after the war ended and were married in Salmon, Idaho of February 18, 1946. They enjoyed 55 years together prior to Erv’s passing in 2001.

After her children were grown, Marjorie returned to college and received her LPN and RN degrees. She retired as a pediatric nurse from the University of Oregon Medical School Premature Baby Hospital in Portland, Oregon.

Marjorie was preceded in death by her husband; her parents; her brother, Dick Ward; twin sisters, Elaine Drnjevic and Ina Claire Ward. Nadine, her oldest sister survives her. She is also survived by her two children, her son, Judge Donald W. Schacht and daughterin- law, Margaret of Walla Walla; her daughter, Susan S. Garrett of Sherwood, Ore. She is further survived by six grandchildren, nine great-grandchildren; and several nieces and nephews.

Private family grave site services will be held at the Willamette National Cemetery in Portland, Oregon on July 20, 2018. She will be interred next to her husband.

Memorial contributions may be made to the Blue Mountain Humane Society, Fort Walla Walla Museum, Walla Walla Hospice or the donor’s choice through Herring Groseclose Funeral Home, 315 W. Alder, Walla Walla, WA 99362.