Full name : Hazel Jesse Skelly
Alternate spellings, aliases : Skelley
Parents :
Father : Michael Joseph Skelly
Mother : Effie Hazel Parfitt
Notes : Hazel’s father died in 1926, her mother in 1973. Hazel and her mother almost always
shared a home until her death. A
few notes on the origin
of the surname Skelly.
Date of Birth : prior to 1920
Place of Birth : St. Louis, Missouri
note
:
Spouse1 :
Name :
Born :
Date of Marriage :
Place of Marriage : St, Louis, Missouri
Died :
Notes : early divorce
Spouse2 :
Name : Martin Luther Webb II
Born : 29 May 1916
Date of Marriage : 5 September 1942
Place of Marriage : St. Louis, Missouri
Died : evening of 24 January 1971, Florissant, Missouri
Notes :
Spouse3 :
Name : Marcus Daly
Born :
Date of Marriage : 1979 or 1980
Place of Marriage : St. Louis, Missouri
Died :
Notes : one of the nicest men you’ll ever meet
Occupation : by her own reckoning, she has held 26
separate jobs including secretary, stenographer, clerk, bookkeeper, office
administrator, numismatist and many others; beginning in 1926, Hazel worked to
support herself and her mother, with some exceptions, until World War Two when
she married (see spouse2).
Military Service : none; Defense Work - During the
Second World War, Hazel worked as secretary to Major Keefer of the 7th Service
Command’s Counter-Intelligence Corps
Office in St. Louis, Missouri. She
soon married and left to devote her energy to maintaining a household for her
husband (always away on detached duty), her newly born daughter (1943) and her
widowed mother, who had no real job skills but could keep house, cook and
really helped with child-care, etc.
Hazel’s account of her activities in the 7th SC office :
“When the agents came back from
investigating someone, they dictated their reports to me (I was a secretary
& bookkeeper). I also kept
track of their clothing allowance, which the government gave them instead of a
uniform. None of the agents wore
uniforms. Only the major who was
in charge of the office [wore one].
She was a secretary and bookkeeper for Major
Keefer, who headed the St. Louis Office, and who reported to Colonel Ball at
the Seventh Service Command Headquarters in Omaha, Nebraska. Although, when hired, she had requested
not to be given the duty of doing the books, she quickly ended up handling that
responsibility. She handled the
expense accounts for the agents, who were not required to wear uniforms, and
she sent them to Famous & Barr department store in downtown St. Louis for
all their suits and work clothes.
Hazel noted, “…I sent them to Famous & Barrs on Tuesdays to get
double Eagles stamps for me, so I could trade them in for merchandise
later.” She also handled the
travel accounts for the men who traveled on assignment throughout the Seventh
Service Command’s area of operations, often to Denver, Omaha and Kansas City.
When the men returned from their
counter-intelligence work, they would dictate their note and reports to Hazel,
so she could type them up and submit them to the Major. Often, Hazel would sit in a back-room
behind Major Keefer’s office, informants with information concerning war plant
production problems, potential sabotage, or sensitive internal security matters
would come to the Major’s office.
In an informal style, the Major (or agents) would question the informant,
and through a hollow pen-set on his desk which housed a hidden microphone,
Hazel would listen in and take shorthand notes and transcribe the conversation
so that when the informant returned, a written statement would be ready for
them to sign. She also had a phone
in a drawer of her desk outside the Major’s office, so that she could listen in
to the conversations between the Major and the Seventh Service Command
Headquarters, and often had to copy and transcribe those conversations as well.
Hazel also accompanied the agents on surveillance missions and met informants
at remote locations.
After she married M. L. Webb, he was shipped out to
Denver, Colorado office and Hazel left her job to follow him. Leaving a
sensitive position like hers was difficult during war-time, but apparently,
Major Keefer pulled some strings and allowed Hazel to leave her job to follow
her husband.
Family :
Daughter : Daughter Webb
Date of Birth : 1940’s
Place of Birth : St. Louis, Missouri
Married :
Died :
Daughter : Daughter Webb
Date of Birth : 1940’s
Place of Birth :
Married : Deiss
Died :
Notes : Author’s connection.