On 27 July 1918, Dorothy Jeanne Gleason was born to David Albert and Mary Nira Wood Gleason, on their farm that was four miles southeast of Council Grove, Kansas. She was the couple’s second child.
In 1936, after her graduation from Council Grove’s high school, she received a United States federal civil service appointment, as a clerk in Council Grove’s post office. While she worked there, World War II began. As the conflict worsened, she started to consider how she could best serve her country. Eventually, she decided to enlist in its armed forces.
In early 1943, she joined the United States Coast Guard Women’s Reserve—a.k.a. SPARS—as an apprentice seaman. One year later, in 1944, she received a commission and became an ensign. Her station postings included Cleveland, New York, Palm Beach, and Washington, DC. In 1946, the Coast Guard released her from active duty, so she became active in the Coast Guard Reserve, and then went back to work in the United States’ federal civil service.
In 1946, she became a member of the staff of the Chief Counsel for War Crimes, and then relocated to Nuremberg, Germany, to support the prosecution of the Nazi war criminals. Her assignment was a significant one: she was in charge of the Coast Guard’s female clerks/typists that generated the Nuremberg trials’ transcripts. Since it was important to obtain an accurate record of the proceedings, she had a staff of women who listened to the translations of the Germans’ remarks and then typed down what they heard. In addition, since people may make mistakes, she had several women generating those transcripts. At the end of each day’s hearings, others would review those multiple transcripts, resolve their differences, and then generate a corrected version, for the use of the trials’ officials.
Years later, during one of her Christmas visits to her family, she told her relatives of her role in the Nuremberg trials. After she had described the mechanics of her job, and detailed how her clerk/typists produced accurate trial transcripts, she offered a bit of insight into its human-factors aspects. She noted that the transcription task took its toll on her clerks, but, besides its stressful physical aspects, there were emotional ones. She explained that most of her staff members were able to generate the transcripts by listening to the spoken words and typing them onto paper, without pausing to analyze what the individuals were saying. However, when the Germans began to describe their actions at the Jewish death camps her clerks began to buckle, so she had to replace some of them.
She said that the Germans’ testimony focused upon two aspects of their mistreatment of their Jewish prisoners. Primarily, the Germans testified about how they routinely sent hundreds of prisoners into the gas chambers, and many of her clerk/typists were able to transcribe their remarks. However, when they began to discuss the other aspect of their assignments—i.e., the horrific medical experiments that the German doctors conducted upon their Jewish captives—her clerks began to pause and consider their remarks. As they did so, many of them became sick to their stomachs, stopped typing, and then began to vomit.
History records that the Germans' actions also repulsed others who were involved with the trials. Hence, their defense for why they did such atrocious things to other human beings—namely, that they were only following orders—did not keep them from the gallows.
In May 1949, after the Nuremberg trials concluded, Jeanne returned to the United States, and then settled in Washington, DC.
In 1949, she began to work at the Naval Ordinance Laboratory in White Oak, Maryland. She held several positions there, and the most-significant one was as Chief, Employee Management Relations, in the Personnel Department. In 1973, she retired from the US federal civil service. Including her time at the Council Grove Post Office, she had worked for it for 35 years.
Her time in the military had inspired her to travel, and it became one of her passions. Over the years, she managed to travel around the world. Once, she told her family that her passport collection contained over a hundred different nation stamps, but some of them were from countries that had changed their names after either WWII or the fall of the Soviet Union. Therefore, she only counted them once when she generated her list of countries visited. In all, she had been to 78 countries.
In 1973, she married Captain Frederick J. Evans, who had served in the US Coast Guard. He was from Michigan, and was an avid sailor who owned his own sailboat. As a result, they often took long trips on it. Their longest one was a voyage from the Great Lakes to the Florida Keys.
In 1978, Frederick died. His remains are in Arlington National Cemetery.
In 1978, Jeanne also ended another much-loved relationship. She retired from the Coast Guard Reserve, and left as a Captain.
She was very active in organizations that concerned the Coast Guard Reserve and took a commanding lead in events pertaining to the SPARS. She served at local and national levels with the Reserve Officers Association and on the Board of Directors of the Retired Officers Association. She was also very active in the Women in Military Service for America Memorial Foundation.
On 13 September 2009, Jeanne died in Washington, DC.
On 21 December 2009, following her funeral service at Fort Myer Chapel, her cremated remains were interred in Arlington National Cemetery, with full military honors.
In 1936, after her graduation from Council Grove’s high school, she received a United States federal civil service appointment, as a clerk in Council Grove’s post office. While she worked there, World War II began. As the conflict worsened, she started to consider how she could best serve her country. Eventually, she decided to enlist in its armed forces.
In early 1943, she joined the United States Coast Guard Women’s Reserve—a.k.a. SPARS—as an apprentice seaman. One year later, in 1944, she received a commission and became an ensign. Her station postings included Cleveland, New York, Palm Beach, and Washington, DC. In 1946, the Coast Guard released her from active duty, so she became active in the Coast Guard Reserve, and then went back to work in the United States’ federal civil service.
In 1946, she became a member of the staff of the Chief Counsel for War Crimes, and then relocated to Nuremberg, Germany, to support the prosecution of the Nazi war criminals. Her assignment was a significant one: she was in charge of the Coast Guard’s female clerks/typists that generated the Nuremberg trials’ transcripts. Since it was important to obtain an accurate record of the proceedings, she had a staff of women who listened to the translations of the Germans’ remarks and then typed down what they heard. In addition, since people may make mistakes, she had several women generating those transcripts. At the end of each day’s hearings, others would review those multiple transcripts, resolve their differences, and then generate a corrected version, for the use of the trials’ officials.
Years later, during one of her Christmas visits to her family, she told her relatives of her role in the Nuremberg trials. After she had described the mechanics of her job, and detailed how her clerk/typists produced accurate trial transcripts, she offered a bit of insight into its human-factors aspects. She noted that the transcription task took its toll on her clerks, but, besides its stressful physical aspects, there were emotional ones. She explained that most of her staff members were able to generate the transcripts by listening to the spoken words and typing them onto paper, without pausing to analyze what the individuals were saying. However, when the Germans began to describe their actions at the Jewish death camps her clerks began to buckle, so she had to replace some of them.
She said that the Germans’ testimony focused upon two aspects of their mistreatment of their Jewish prisoners. Primarily, the Germans testified about how they routinely sent hundreds of prisoners into the gas chambers, and many of her clerk/typists were able to transcribe their remarks. However, when they began to discuss the other aspect of their assignments—i.e., the horrific medical experiments that the German doctors conducted upon their Jewish captives—her clerks began to pause and consider their remarks. As they did so, many of them became sick to their stomachs, stopped typing, and then began to vomit.
History records that the Germans' actions also repulsed others who were involved with the trials. Hence, their defense for why they did such atrocious things to other human beings—namely, that they were only following orders—did not keep them from the gallows.
In May 1949, after the Nuremberg trials concluded, Jeanne returned to the United States, and then settled in Washington, DC.
In 1949, she began to work at the Naval Ordinance Laboratory in White Oak, Maryland. She held several positions there, and the most-significant one was as Chief, Employee Management Relations, in the Personnel Department. In 1973, she retired from the US federal civil service. Including her time at the Council Grove Post Office, she had worked for it for 35 years.
Her time in the military had inspired her to travel, and it became one of her passions. Over the years, she managed to travel around the world. Once, she told her family that her passport collection contained over a hundred different nation stamps, but some of them were from countries that had changed their names after either WWII or the fall of the Soviet Union. Therefore, she only counted them once when she generated her list of countries visited. In all, she had been to 78 countries.
In 1973, she married Captain Frederick J. Evans, who had served in the US Coast Guard. He was from Michigan, and was an avid sailor who owned his own sailboat. As a result, they often took long trips on it. Their longest one was a voyage from the Great Lakes to the Florida Keys.
In 1978, Frederick died. His remains are in Arlington National Cemetery.
In 1978, Jeanne also ended another much-loved relationship. She retired from the Coast Guard Reserve, and left as a Captain.
She was very active in organizations that concerned the Coast Guard Reserve and took a commanding lead in events pertaining to the SPARS. She served at local and national levels with the Reserve Officers Association and on the Board of Directors of the Retired Officers Association. She was also very active in the Women in Military Service for America Memorial Foundation.
On 13 September 2009, Jeanne died in Washington, DC.
On 21 December 2009, following her funeral service at Fort Myer Chapel, her cremated remains were interred in Arlington National Cemetery, with full military honors.
On 27 July 1918, Dorothy Jeanne Gleason was born to David Albert and Mary Nira Wood Gleason, on their farm that was four miles southeast of Council Grove, Kansas. She was the couple’s second child.
In 1936, after her graduation from Council Grove’s high school, she received a United States federal civil service appointment, as a clerk in Council Grove’s post office. While she worked there, World War II began. As the conflict worsened, she started to consider how she could best serve her country. Eventually, she decided to enlist in its armed forces.
In early 1943, she joined the United States Coast Guard Women’s Reserve—a.k.a. SPARS—as an apprentice seaman. One year later, in 1944, she received a commission and became an ensign. Her station postings included Cleveland, New York, Palm Beach, and Washington, DC. In 1946, the Coast Guard released her from active duty, so she became active in the Coast Guard Reserve, and then went back to work in the United States’ federal civil service.
In 1946, she became a member of the staff of the Chief Counsel for War Crimes, and then relocated to Nuremberg, Germany, to support the prosecution of the Nazi war criminals. Her assignment was a significant one: she was in charge of the Coast Guard’s female clerks/typists that generated the Nuremberg trials’ transcripts. Since it was important to obtain an accurate record of the proceedings, she had a staff of women who listened to the translations of the Germans’ remarks and then typed down what they heard. In addition, since people may make mistakes, she had several women generating those transcripts. At the end of each day’s hearings, others would review those multiple transcripts, resolve their differences, and then generate a corrected version, for the use of the trials’ officials.
Years later, during one of her Christmas visits to her family, she told her relatives of her role in the Nuremberg trials. After she had described the mechanics of her job, and detailed how her clerk/typists produced accurate trial transcripts, she offered a bit of insight into its human-factors aspects. She noted that the transcription task took its toll on her clerks, but, besides its stressful physical aspects, there were emotional ones. She explained that most of her staff members were able to generate the transcripts by listening to the spoken words and typing them onto paper, without pausing to analyze what the individuals were saying. However, when the Germans began to describe their actions at the Jewish death camps her clerks began to buckle, so she had to replace some of them.
She said that the Germans’ testimony focused upon two aspects of their mistreatment of their Jewish prisoners. Primarily, the Germans testified about how they routinely sent hundreds of prisoners into the gas chambers, and many of her clerk/typists were able to transcribe their remarks. However, when they began to discuss the other aspect of their assignments—i.e., the horrific medical experiments that the German doctors conducted upon their Jewish captives—her clerks began to pause and consider their remarks. As they did so, many of them became sick to their stomachs, stopped typing, and then began to vomit.
History records that the Germans' actions also repulsed others who were involved with the trials. Hence, their defense for why they did such atrocious things to other human beings—namely, that they were only following orders—did not keep them from the gallows.
In May 1949, after the Nuremberg trials concluded, Jeanne returned to the United States, and then settled in Washington, DC.
In 1949, she began to work at the Naval Ordinance Laboratory in White Oak, Maryland. She held several positions there, and the most-significant one was as Chief, Employee Management Relations, in the Personnel Department. In 1973, she retired from the US federal civil service. Including her time at the Council Grove Post Office, she had worked for it for 35 years.
Her time in the military had inspired her to travel, and it became one of her passions. Over the years, she managed to travel around the world. Once, she told her family that her passport collection contained over a hundred different nation stamps, but some of them were from countries that had changed their names after either WWII or the fall of the Soviet Union. Therefore, she only counted them once when she generated her list of countries visited. In all, she had been to 78 countries.
In 1973, she married Captain Frederick J. Evans, who had served in the US Coast Guard. He was from Michigan, and was an avid sailor who owned his own sailboat. As a result, they often took long trips on it. Their longest one was a voyage from the Great Lakes to the Florida Keys.
In 1978, Frederick died. His remains are in Arlington National Cemetery.
In 1978, Jeanne also ended another much-loved relationship. She retired from the Coast Guard Reserve, and left as a Captain.
She was very active in organizations that concerned the Coast Guard Reserve and took a commanding lead in events pertaining to the SPARS. She served at local and national levels with the Reserve Officers Association and on the Board of Directors of the Retired Officers Association. She was also very active in the Women in Military Service for America Memorial Foundation.
On 13 September 2009, Jeanne died in Washington, DC.
On 21 December 2009, following her funeral service at Fort Myer Chapel, her cremated remains were interred in Arlington National Cemetery, with full military honors.
In 1936, after her graduation from Council Grove’s high school, she received a United States federal civil service appointment, as a clerk in Council Grove’s post office. While she worked there, World War II began. As the conflict worsened, she started to consider how she could best serve her country. Eventually, she decided to enlist in its armed forces.
In early 1943, she joined the United States Coast Guard Women’s Reserve—a.k.a. SPARS—as an apprentice seaman. One year later, in 1944, she received a commission and became an ensign. Her station postings included Cleveland, New York, Palm Beach, and Washington, DC. In 1946, the Coast Guard released her from active duty, so she became active in the Coast Guard Reserve, and then went back to work in the United States’ federal civil service.
In 1946, she became a member of the staff of the Chief Counsel for War Crimes, and then relocated to Nuremberg, Germany, to support the prosecution of the Nazi war criminals. Her assignment was a significant one: she was in charge of the Coast Guard’s female clerks/typists that generated the Nuremberg trials’ transcripts. Since it was important to obtain an accurate record of the proceedings, she had a staff of women who listened to the translations of the Germans’ remarks and then typed down what they heard. In addition, since people may make mistakes, she had several women generating those transcripts. At the end of each day’s hearings, others would review those multiple transcripts, resolve their differences, and then generate a corrected version, for the use of the trials’ officials.
Years later, during one of her Christmas visits to her family, she told her relatives of her role in the Nuremberg trials. After she had described the mechanics of her job, and detailed how her clerk/typists produced accurate trial transcripts, she offered a bit of insight into its human-factors aspects. She noted that the transcription task took its toll on her clerks, but, besides its stressful physical aspects, there were emotional ones. She explained that most of her staff members were able to generate the transcripts by listening to the spoken words and typing them onto paper, without pausing to analyze what the individuals were saying. However, when the Germans began to describe their actions at the Jewish death camps her clerks began to buckle, so she had to replace some of them.
She said that the Germans’ testimony focused upon two aspects of their mistreatment of their Jewish prisoners. Primarily, the Germans testified about how they routinely sent hundreds of prisoners into the gas chambers, and many of her clerk/typists were able to transcribe their remarks. However, when they began to discuss the other aspect of their assignments—i.e., the horrific medical experiments that the German doctors conducted upon their Jewish captives—her clerks began to pause and consider their remarks. As they did so, many of them became sick to their stomachs, stopped typing, and then began to vomit.
History records that the Germans' actions also repulsed others who were involved with the trials. Hence, their defense for why they did such atrocious things to other human beings—namely, that they were only following orders—did not keep them from the gallows.
In May 1949, after the Nuremberg trials concluded, Jeanne returned to the United States, and then settled in Washington, DC.
In 1949, she began to work at the Naval Ordinance Laboratory in White Oak, Maryland. She held several positions there, and the most-significant one was as Chief, Employee Management Relations, in the Personnel Department. In 1973, she retired from the US federal civil service. Including her time at the Council Grove Post Office, she had worked for it for 35 years.
Her time in the military had inspired her to travel, and it became one of her passions. Over the years, she managed to travel around the world. Once, she told her family that her passport collection contained over a hundred different nation stamps, but some of them were from countries that had changed their names after either WWII or the fall of the Soviet Union. Therefore, she only counted them once when she generated her list of countries visited. In all, she had been to 78 countries.
In 1973, she married Captain Frederick J. Evans, who had served in the US Coast Guard. He was from Michigan, and was an avid sailor who owned his own sailboat. As a result, they often took long trips on it. Their longest one was a voyage from the Great Lakes to the Florida Keys.
In 1978, Frederick died. His remains are in Arlington National Cemetery.
In 1978, Jeanne also ended another much-loved relationship. She retired from the Coast Guard Reserve, and left as a Captain.
She was very active in organizations that concerned the Coast Guard Reserve and took a commanding lead in events pertaining to the SPARS. She served at local and national levels with the Reserve Officers Association and on the Board of Directors of the Retired Officers Association. She was also very active in the Women in Military Service for America Memorial Foundation.
On 13 September 2009, Jeanne died in Washington, DC.
On 21 December 2009, following her funeral service at Fort Myer Chapel, her cremated remains were interred in Arlington National Cemetery, with full military honors.
Inscription
Captain
U.S. Coast Guard
World War II
Family Members
Sponsored by Ancestry
Advertisement
Advertisement
