Kathlyn, Lora, Raymond Perry b. 1920s

/ Kirstin Miller

Lora, Kathlyn and Raymond Perry 2nd cousins 1x removed.

1940 Des Moines, Iowa

Gladys’s mom Mary Fries and the Perry kids’s grandma Lora Fries were sisters. Lora married John Jackson they had a daughter Pearl Irene Jackson. Pearl married Roy Perry and they had 2 daughters Lora and Kathlyn and a son Raymond. Gladys Cable was the aunt of the Perry kids and just a couple years older. They all grew up together in Pleasant Grove near Greene, Iowa. By 1940 the Perry family was in Des Moines where Roy was the manager and Pearl a cone maker at Krispy Homemade Kones owned by Ewing Lambert, brother to Gladys Cable, cousin to Pearl, uncle to the Perry kids. IN 1940 Kathryn and Lora were students at the American Schools of Business, Raymond was 17 and still in high school.

In 1941 all 3 enlisted in the Army. Raymond enlisted  December 30, 1941 and stayed in the Army until at least 1958 when he was Captain of the Transportation Corps, probably in Oregon. He died in 2013.

Perry, Lora and Kathlyn 1942 WAC graduating class

Kathlyn and Lora enlisted too, in the new Women’s Auxiliary Army Corps WAAC, later WAC. Lora enlisted August 24,1942 and Kathlyn enlisted September 9, 1942. Fort Des Moines, Iowa was the first WAAC training camp, it opened in July 1942. WAAC soldiers were pioneers, the program was phased out in the 1970s when soldiers were soldiers no matter the gender. Lora was probably in that first graduating class, Kathryn in a following class.

Lora and Kathlyn’s military service is harder to trace. Lora was probably still in the Army until as late as August 1956 when she was on a crew list flying from NY to Frankfort Germany. There’s no further detail on Kathryn’s service, yet. Lora married Donnally Langston, they lived in California. Kathlyn married Howard Manley and also lived in California. Lora died in 2004, Kathlyn in 2000. Both are buried in Sierra Hills Memorial Park Sacramento, California.

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