Veterans column: Newark's Agnes Sasser heads to Africa, Europe for WWII
Agnes Sasser was born in Newark on December 1, 1907, to Charles and Anna Sasser. In 1929, the 21-year- old married Clyde Bowman.
Clyde was a widower and had a 9-year-old son also named Clyde. Agnes worked with her husband in his business at the Bowman Auto Top Company. On April 9, 1933, the family took a Sunday drive. Everything seemed fine until that evening when Clyde reportedly said he wasn’t feeling well. Later that evening he stated he was feeling better and went to bed. On Monday at 6 a.m., Agnes found her 56-year-old husband had died in his sleep. She was a widow at the age of 26 and Clyde Jr. ,now 13 years old, had lost both his parents.
Clyde Jr. attended Newark High School. He was active in sports, drama, and chorus until his graduation in 1937. In the 1940 census, Agnes and Clyde Jr. were living with her mother at 51 Bowers Avenue. Agnes’s occupation is listed as a timekeeper at Owens Corning while Clyde was working as a clerk at Conrad’s Drug Store. In June of 1941, he resigned from Conrad and began working with the Hoover Brother’s Oil and Gas Well Drilling Company, but Uncle Sam had other plans for Clyde. He was drafted into the Army on October 16, 1941; just seven weeks before the Japanese attack at Pearl Harbor. In 1942 he was sent to Hawaii where he was stationed with the 105th Infantry.
On May 29, 1943, Agnes enlisted in the Women’s Army Corps. According to her military records, she was a Forelady at Fiberglass where she, “Was in charge of a group of women, salvaging thread from spindles. Assigned jobs and kept work going. Checked time for absentees and hours worked. Kept record of all material salvaged. Taught operation.” She received orders to report to Fort Devens in Massachusetts. She was then assigned to the 175 WAC Post Headquarters Company at Fort Oglethorpe, Georgia where she was designated as a Truck Driver.
In October of 1943, a contingent of WACs, which included Agnes, was sent to North Africa. By December they were in Italy. An article in the Newark Advocate on March 2, 1944, ran with the headline, “Newark WAC in Italy is Driver for Air Officer.” It reported that Agnes had written a letter home to her mother and stated that she was the “closest that any women had ever been permitted to a battle area.”
The reporter continued the story on Army life. “The old barter system with candy cosmetics, starch, and bobby pins is in full swing with this group of WACs assigned to the air force command. A girl with a good stock of commodities never needs to do her own laundry mend her hose or shine her shoes. Private Bowman is the handiest girl of all. She is a driver for the commanding officer, Captain Jane A. Stretch, and keeps her jeep in perfect mechanical repair. She has her tool kit ideal for feminine repair jobs. It contains pliers, a hammer, an assortment of nails, screws, tweezers, cord, nail files, a jackknife, and wire hairpins. She can fix anything from putting up a non-sagging clothesline, building a locker, and repairing lighters to making coat hangers. But in return for these little odd jobs, she charges a ‘nominal fee’.”
One of her fees was having others mend her clothes for her, “She can take a wrench to a jeep and make it purr” the article stated, “but she hasn’t much patience with a needle and thread.” Her son Clyde was quoted as saying, “He is very proud of his mother and especially proud she is wearing the ribbon of the Mediterranean Theater.”
While Agnes was making a place for herself in Europe, Clyde Jr. was about to make his impact in the Pacific.
Doug Stout is the Veterans Project Coordinator for the Licking County Library. You may contact him at 740-349-5571 or dstout@lickingcountylibrary.org. His book "Never Forgotten: The Stories of Licking County Veterans" is available for purchase at the library or online at bookbaby.com & Amazon.com.
This article originally appeared on Newark Advocate: Vet column: Newark's Agnes Sasser heads to Africa, Europe for WWII
