Jaqua, Mary Alice, 1913-1987

Biography

Mary Alice Jaqua was born in Grinnell, Iowa, on July 24, 1913, the daughter of Ernest J. Jaqua (1882-1972) and his wife Gwendolyn Evans (1885-1971). She moved with her family to Claremont, California, in 1926, when her father accepted the position of professor of education and dean of the faculty at Pomona College; he was appointed first president of Scripps College ikn 1926. She received her BA from Scripps in 1934, and in 1935-1936 undertook graduate work in English Literature at the University of California, Berkeley. In 1937-1938 she was a secretary in the office of the President of George Washington Universith, Washington, DC, and from 1938 to 1941 secretary and research assistant in the Medical and Psychiatric Research Project at Harvard University. In 1941 Jaqua went to England as secretary to Dr. John E. Gordon, Director of the American Red Cross-Harvard Hospital Unit in Salisbury. In 1942 she became a civilian employee of the US military, serving successively as confidential secretary to Lt. Cdr. Harry C. Butcher, Naval Aide to Dwight D. Eisenhower, Commanding General, European Theater of Operations (August 1942), and secretary to Maj. Gen. Russell P. Hartle, Deputy Commander, European Theater of Operations (November 1942). When Eisenhower was given supreme command of the Allied forces and moved to Africa, Jaqua remained in London as secretary to his successors, Lt. Gen. Frank M. Andrews (February 1943) and Lt. Gen. Jacob L. Devers (May 1943), while continuing to handle Eisenhower's London business. In January 1944 she followed Devers, who had been appointed Commanding General, North African Field of Operations, and Deputy Supreme Allied Commander, Mediterranean Theater, to Algiers and in July to Caserta, Italy. The following month she joined the staff of the Historical Section, Mediterranean Allied Air Forces (Lt. Gen. Ira C. Eaker, Commander), in Caserta, Italy. She returned to the United States in August 1945, and after several months in Minneapolis, moved to New York City, where she served as secretary to Jock Dunning, Executive Vice President, Whitney Industries, until March 1946.

Jaqua returned to California, settling in Los Angeles, and in 1951 received an MS in Psychiatric Social Work from the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA). From 1956 to 1962, she taught social case work at UCLA, and worked with a private psychiatrist and at the Los Angeles Day Mental Hospital. She then became a counselor with the Edgewood Family Counseling Agency in Covina. In 1969, she was appointed staff consultant for residential affairs at Scripps College, a position she held currently with her counseling job.

Jaqua married Murray Kahne, a teacher, sometime between 1951 and 1953. Nothing is known of him, although he may be the man of this name who was born November 1, 1915, and died in Ridgewood, New York, on October 2, 2009. She returned to Claremont in 1968, moving to a retirement home in Montclair in 1986, and died on February 12, 1987.

From the guide to the Mary Alice Jaqua Papers, 1940-1970, (Ella Strong Denison Library)