SSGT, Marine Corps womens reserve, Mary Florence Luchi King  Kellogg

Born: December 19, 1921
Died: November 11, 1992

While working as a stenographer at Bank of America in Stockton, California, Luchi King heard her country’s call.^1,2 She applied to join the United States Marine Corps Women’s Reserves (MCWR) on April 13, 1943, and by the 28^th, she had received orders to proceed to Hunter College in New York City for training.^3,4  Hunter College was being used to train both WAVES for the Navy and MCWR.

“Recruits received very precise and clear instructions before leaving home. They were told to bring rain coat and rain hat (no umbrellas), lightweight dresses or suits, plain bathrobe, soft-soled bedroom slippers, easily laundered underwear, play suit or shorts for physical education (no slacks), and comfortable dark brown, laced oxfords because, ‘. . . experience has proven that drilling tends to enlarge the feet.’ They were also warned not to leave home without orders, not to arrive before the exact time and date stamped on the orders, and not to forget their ration cards.”⁵

“Between 26 March and 10 July 1943, six classes of recruits of approximately 525 each, arrived incrementally every two weeks. Of the 3,346 women who began recruit training at Hunter, 3,280 graduated, one of them was Luchi King.”⁶ Once Pvt. Luchi’s training was complete, she was sent to Mare Island, California. But she was not destined to stay there long. Far away, it was being decided that while sharing the Navy curriculum was a nice idea, it was not creating Marines; and being a woman was not going to prevent the USMC from turning recruits into Marines.

“Having different aspirations than the Navy for their WAVES, the Marines soon found it necessary to have their own schools. But, as Colonel Mary Stremlow wrote, ‘A larger motive for moving MCWR schools to Camp Lejeune was the famed Marine esprit de corps. Camp Lejeune, where thousands of Marines were preparing for deployment overseas, was the largest Marine training base on the East Coast and offered opportunities for the women to observe field exercises and weapons demonstrations, and to see the faces of the young men they would free to fight’.”⁷

And so it was that hardly after arriving on Mare Island, Pvt. Luchi King was sent to Camp Lejeune in North Carolina in July 1943. While there, not only did they turn her into a Marine, they turned her into a dedicated one: she worked hard and it was noticed. Promotions followed and she was promoted to Staff Sergeant. This made SSGT Luchi King “responsible for the proficiency, training and administration of Marines in [her] charge.”⁸ Being a Marine was something more than skin deep for Sergeant Luchi; not only was her twin brother a Marine, but in June of 1945 Sgt. Luchi married a Marine in Orange County, California.⁹ SSGT Luchi King was released from the MCWR on September 27, 1945.¹⁰

Mary Florence Luchi King was born, with her twin brother, in the San Francisco Bay area on December 19, 1921, to Augusto (Gus) John and Mamie Vestia Luchi, a second marriage for both. Her father was an Italian immigrant to the US. She and her brother grew up in California and were independent at an early age, which no doubt aided their decisions to become Marines during the war. By 1940, at barely 18, Luchi King was living alone and making her own way in the world as a stenographer at a bank.¹¹

As mentioned, she married a Marine in June 1945, Ray L. King. They were living in Long Beach, California, in 1946.¹² By 1950, Master Sergeant King had been assigned to the Marine Recruiting station in Oklahoma City.¹³ They had two daughters and two sons. In December 1955, MSGT King was put in charge of the Marine Recruiting Station in Albuquerque, New Mexico and he and his family moved there.¹⁴  Sergeant King retired from active service after 20 years as a Marine in 1959.¹⁵ Both lived in Albuquerque until their deaths, his in 2016, but Mary Florence Luchi King passed away on November 11, 1992.^16,17

Images & Documents

Notes:

1. “Miss Mary Florence Luchi.” Stockton Daily Evening Record. Stockton, California. 28 April 1943. p. 8.

2. “Luchi, Florence M.” Year: 1940; Census Place: Sonora, Tuolumne, California; Roll: m-t0627-00362; Page: 61A; Enumeration District: 55-1

3. “Mary F. King.” Ancestry.com. U.S., Department of Veterans Affairs BIRLS Death File.

4. “Miss Mary Florence Luchi.” Stockton Daily Evening Record. Stockton, California. 28 April 1943. p. 8.

Compiled by: A. D. McLean, MA, MLIS. Central New Mexico Community College, retired 2022.

Featured Image:

“Mary Florence Luchi King.” Find a Grave, database and images (https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/3872336/mary-florence-king: accessed 11 July 2023), memorial page for Mary Florence Luchi King (19 Dec 1921–11 Nov 1992), Find a Grave Memorial ID 3872336, citing Santa Fe National Cemetery, Santa Fe, Santa Fe County, New Mexico, USA; Maintained by Roger and Christina Jones Greuel (contributor 48384276).