Ann DiValerio, a veteran of the Marine Corps, traveled to Washington last summer to visit the Iwo Jima Memorial near Arlington National Cemetery and attend a concert by the United States Marine Band.
As the World War II veteran entered the concert grounds in a wheelchair, she was spotted wearing her Marine Corps cap and was given an escort to a special viewing section and seated in the front row.
A few minutes later, DiValerio was approached by two men dressed in formal military uniforms who introduced themselves as Robert Neller, commandant of the U.S. Marine Corps, and four-star Army Gen. Mark A. Milley, a member of the Joint Chiefs of Staff.
“Both men gave her a kiss on the cheek and thanked her for being a pioneer woman in the Marines,” said DiValerio’s daughter, Denise, who accompanied her mother on the August trip. “And that’s when mom nearly fell out of her wheelchair.”
DiValerio would later describe that moment as one of her life’s greatest experiences.
“I thought I was just coming to listen to the concert and pay my respects to the memorial and all it symbolizes,” she recounted in October to the Sun Day, a newsletter for the Sun City retirement community in northwest suburban Huntley, where DiValerio lived. “Here were two of the most famous officers in America and they were going out of their way to welcome me and thank me for my service.”
DiValerio, 93, previously of Park Ridge, former president of the Illinois Women Marines Association, died May 28, at Lutheran General Hospital in Park Ridge, of complications related to myasthenia gravis, a chronic autoimmune disease that causes muscular weakness, her daughter said.
“Whether you’re a man or a woman, or whether it’s 1943 or 2017, Ann was a shining example of what it means to be a Marine,” said Maj. Shanelle Porter, commanding officer at the Marine Recruiting Station Chicago. “Her quiet confidence, strength of character and constant humility earned her so much respect.”
Porter first met DiValerio at an event in 2014, and the two women — despite their age difference of more than 45 years — hit it off.
“We’d sit and talk about our Marine experiences,” Porter said. “Back when she served, female Marines couldn’t even train with a weapon. Today we do everything a man does — on and off the battlefield.”
Born and raised Ann Marie Serio on the Northwest Side, DiValerio graduated from Notre Dame High School for Girls in 1942. Later she worked at the Chicago Public Library, where she met a Marine and became engaged before he shipped out to serve in the Pacific Theater during WWII.
Active in the USO, DiValerio wanted to do more for the war effort, so in 1943 she joined the Marines, which had allowed women to enlist and perform clerical duties since 1918 and activated the Marine Corps Women’s Reserve in 1943.
“She signed up, but only under her father’s condition that she not serve overseas,” her daughter said.
She completed a six-week boot camp at Camp Lejeune in North Carolina. While in training, she was notified that her fiance had been killed in battle. He later received the Silver Star posthumously.
After boot camp, DiValerio was sent to the San Diego Marine recruiting depot in California, where she worked in the library, under the supervision of a male sergeant.
“It was good duty, but I later asked for a change, and they made me a CQ, a Charge of Quarters person who performs security duty, both days and nights,” DiValerio told the Sun Day. “I had to stand for inspections and make sure I and everything I was responsible for was ‘spit and polished.’ It was great duty.”
By 1944, DiValerio was transferred to the Bremerton, Wash., Naval Yard, where she worked in the Quartermaster Corps, and helped Marines returning from the war zone by replacing their clothing and personal effects.
“I made out the requisitions for the stuff they needed, many had clothes in really bad condition,” she told the Sun Day. “It was depressing but important work.”
DiValerio served two and a half years of active duty and was discharged in 1946. She returned to the Chicago area, took a job at the Northwestern University dental school, and soon met her future husband, Anthony DiValerio, a veteran of the Army Air Forces. He died in 2000.
The couple married in 1947 and settled in Park Ridge, where she worked as a receptionist for a dentist.
DiValerio served two terms as Illinois president of the Women Marines Association in the late 1990s and early 2000s. During that time, she hosted the Regional Conference and participated in many Chicago-area parades. She also participated in a Marine alumni group in Sun City, after moving there in 1999.
“As a Marine, Ann inspired me in so many ways,” Porter said. “She’d remind me that we’re not in it for the glory, but for love of country and because it’s the right thing to do.
DiValerio also is survived by two sons, Dennis and Greg; nine grandchildren and five great-grandchildren.
Services were held.
Joan Giangrasse Kates is a freelance reporter.
