Alice Adele (Parrish) Talley (1904 - 2001)

Born 6 May 1904 in Taylor County, Iowa, United States

Ancestors

Died 27 Dec 2001 at age 97 in Saint Joseph, Buchanan, Missouri, United States

Biography

Alice A Parrish was born 6 May 1904 in Taylor County, Iowa, USA. Her parents were William Parrish and Minnie (Eighmy) Parrish. Alice's father was elected Sheriff of Taylor County, Iowa. Her mother died when Alice was twelve years old. She had four siblings.^[1]

After graduating from Bedford High School she attended Iowa State Teachers College at Cedar Falls, graduating with a teaching degree. She taught for ten years in Taylor County and in Glenwood, Iowa. She also taught in Grand Junction, Colorado.

Alice served in the Women's Bureau of the Metropolitan Police Department, Washington D.C. for 10 years. In 1939 she received a Bachelor of Law Degree from Columbus University Law School in Washington, D.C.

Alice Joined Women's Army Auxiliary Corps and became in charge of a new WAAC MP patrol and guard unit at Fort Des Moines, Iowa. ^[2]

She served as Provost Marshall at Fort Des Moines and Fort Oglethorpe in Georgia. In 1948, after the WACS were reclassified as an integral branch of the United States Army, she was among the first to pass the qualifying exam and accepted a regular army commission. During her military career, she also served in Berlin during the airlift and in the Inspector General's Office in Munich and Heidelberg, Germany.

After retiring in 1946 from the Women's Army Corps, Alice lived in Seoul, Korea, where on the basis of her police experience, her legal training and studies in police criminology at Columbus University, she was selected first in a supervisory capacity and later as a special advisor in the organizational training of the South Korean Policewomen's Corps in 1947 and 1948.^[3]

Despite the fact that no WAC units were assigned to Korea, contact was established with the Corps' counterpart in the Republic of Korea (ROK) Army. Its women's corps had formed rapidly in 1950 around a nucleus of policewomen trained for service in the Korean National Constabulary in 1947 by a former WAC Captain, Alice A. Parrish, who, in 1948, rejoined the WAC and remained in the Regular Army until retirement in 1974. Contact during the war strengthened the tie and led to the assignment of a senior WAC officer as U.S. military adviser to the ROK Army WAC in 1956; the position was not discontinued until 1974. ^[4]. ^[5].

Alice also served as Chief of the Complaints Division, Officer of the Inspector General in Munich, Germany and then at 1st Army Headquarters, Governor's Island, N. Y. While stationed in Europe, Alice indulged her love for adventure traveling to North Africa, Greece, Turkey and Israel, as well as to the more familiar countries.

In 1974 (following her 2nd retirement from the WAC as WAC Staff Advisor for the Military District of Washington, Fort Lesley J. McNair, Washington, DC), Alice married Dr. Charles Horton Talley (1906-1990) who had been a high school classmate almost 50 years previously. Horton and Alice Talley lived in Santa Ana, Ca., for a time before relocating to Lacey, Washington, Her husband passed away 23 Feb 1990 in Olympia, Thurston County, Washington. In 1990 Alice moved to St. Joseph, Missouri where her sister, Eulah Cobb, lived.

Alice (Parrish) Talley passed away 27 Dec 2001 in Saint Joseph, Buchanan County, Missouri, USA. She was buried at the Fairview Cemetery in Bedford, Taylor County, Iowa, USA with her husband.

Sources

1. ↑ Bedford Times-Press, Wednesday, January 9, 2002, Obituary published for ALICE ADELE TALLEY.
2. ↑ Article in The Evening Star, Washington, D. C. 10 May 1943. Title: "Washingtonian Heads WAAC M.P.s at Fort Des Moines".
3. ↑ FAG MEMORIAL ID 138478684 narrative.
4. ↑ http://webdoc.sub.gwdg.de/ebook/p/2005/CMH_2/www.army.mil/cmh-pg/books/wac/chapter4.htm
5. ↑ Ltr, LtCol Alice Parrish Talley, USA (Ret), to author, 22 Sep 76, in author's file, CMH; Address, LtCol Mary C. Lane, "The WAC in Korea," 19 Oct 61, History Collection, WAC Museum, Fort Lee, Virginia

• U.S., Find A Grave Index 1600s-Current. NAME Alice Adele Parrish Talley. BIRTH 6 May 1904. Taylor County, Iowa, USA. DEATH 27 Dec 2001 (aged 97).Saint Joseph, Buchanan County, Missouri, USA. BURIAL Fairvie.w Cemetery, Bedford, Taylor County, Iowa, USA. MEMORIAL ID 138478684 · View Source URL: https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/138478684/alice-adele-talley

• Creveling Family History And Genealogy, 2nd Edition, pg 234