She's a WAVE
Traer, Ia. -- Miss Melba Smith, daughter of Mr. and Mrs. Floyd Smith, Traer, was inducted into the Waves at Des Moines Friday and will be called sometime in October to receive her basic training at Hunter college, New York City. Miss Smith is a graduate of Traer High school and has been employed in Waterloo for the last several months.
Source: The Courier, Waterloo IA - September 20, 1943 (photo included)
ASSIGN TRAER WAVE TO NEW YORK SCHOOL
Traer, Ia. -- Melba Smith, storekeeper third class in the Waves, who has been spending a short leave with her parents, Mr. and Mrs. Floyd Smith, following her basic training at the yeoman training school at Indiana university, Bloomington, Ind., has been assigned to a navy school in Sampson, N.Y., and reported for duty there last week. She will do clerical work. Before entering the service she was employed in Waterloo.
Source: The Courier, Waterloo, IA - February 27, 1944
Melba Louise Smith Kascelansky end born July 26, 1924 to Floyd A. and Laye Ladou Smith. She died Feb. 13, 2004 and is buried in Saint Michaels Cemetery, South Hackensack, NJ.
Melba served with the U.S. Navy WAVES in World War II. She was married to John T. Kascelansky.
Source: ancestry.com
