Yeoman Second Class, US Navy Lena Alice Shoup Mason

Born: April 2, 1921, Star City, Arkansas
Died: May 18, 2016, Albuquerque, New Mexico

Yeoman 2^nd Class Lena Alice Shoup (Mason) joined the US Navy as one of the Women Accepted for Volunteer Emergency Service (WAVES) in February of 1943.¹ Later in life, she recalled training in Cedar Falls, Iowa.² This was no doubt memorable since the people of Cedar Falls were so welcoming to the Navy yeoman who trained there.³ “The vast majority of WAVES and SPARs served as yeomen, the Navy’s classification for secretarial work.”⁴ While there, Shoup would have learned all the standard subjects: naval nomenclature and abbreviations, naval regulations, official form preparation, ship and shore organization, spelling, naval filing systems, and official naval publications. She would also have physical activity such as water polo to keep Navy fit.⁵ The WAVES were treated just like regular navy seamen: divided into regiments, companies, and platoons and marched everywhere in these classifications, even to class.⁶ Once training was complete, the WAVES graduated with the rank of yeoman 3^rd class.

After completing her courses, Yeoman 3^rd Class Shoup was sent to Washington D.C. where it is not known if she arrived in time to celebrate the first anniversary of the WAVES in July of 1943, but she was certainly there for the huge rally that celebrated their second anniversary in 1944.⁷ In Washington, she worked in the Communications Annex and lived in WAVE Quarters D just across the street.⁸ These quarters were the largest WAVE quarters in the US.⁹ Work for Yeoman Shoup was demanding, but she also had access to anything in D quarters: “Young women from forty-eight states have succeeded in converting WAVE Quarters “D”, Washington, D. C., from cold, gray barracks into a warm community which offers recreation for the leisure-minded, and opportunity for personal development in education and the art of living.”¹⁰ Shoup gained a Specialist rating of Sp(Q)2 meaning she was a communications specialist, possibly a cryptologist, cryptanalyst, radio intelligence technician, or a registered publications clerk.¹¹ She was excellent at her work and was promoted to the rank of Yeoman 2^nd class before she left the WAVES at the end of the war, for her on November 19, 1945.¹²

Lena Alice Shoup was born in Star City, Arkansas, to Daniel and Evie Shoup on April 2, 1921.¹³ She grew up with seven siblings.^14,15 The family moved to Kemp, Texas, in 1924 and moved around a good deal in the Dallas area before settling in Houston in 1935. Shoup graduated from high school in 1939. After her naval service, she returned to Houston. There she married Edwin Mason in 1946. Their first child, a daughter, was born after they returned to Washington D.C. However, the following year the Mason family returned to Houston, Texas and their son was born there two years later. While in Houston, the feisty Shoup worked for a dentist’s office from 1959 to 1969. That year she moved to Santa Rosa, New Mexico to manage a restaurant. By 1970, the Masons had divorced. Never one to be defeated, Shoup returned to Houston briefly in 1972 before taking a job back in Washington D.C. She worked at the Industrial College of the Armed Forces in their Protocol Office where she claimed, “Very interesting sojourn, very interesting people.”¹⁶ Since the school was “Originally established in 1924 as the Army Industrial College, this institution was the first school of its kind with study focused completely on issues of industrial mobilization for military purposes. In 1946, the school began its tradition as a joint institution changing its name to The Industrial College of the Armed Forces with Army and Navy personnel participating in departmental duties,” it must have been a very interesting sojourn indeed.¹⁷ Her naval training and communications specialty came in very handy in the Protocol Office.

Never one to resist a challenge, and since her children were now both in New Mexico, Shoup moved back to Santa Rosa to manage a drive-in. When she turned 62, she retired to Texas. At 75, though, she decided to move to Albuquerque, New Mexico, to be near her children and grandchildren. Her family fondly remembered her as a fantastic untrained artist with her paintings, decorating, and floral arrangements. She was even a poet, immortalizing her cousin and childhood friend, Louise Steele, lost too soon whom she claimed as her guardian angel.

Lena Alice Shoup Mason passed away on May 18, 2016.

Images & Documents

“WAVES Lead Busy Lives at Cedar Falls” The Gazette

“WAVES Lead Busy Lives at Cedar Falls.” The Gazette. Cedar Rapids, Iowa. 13 June 1943. Retrieved: 14 July 2023. https://www.newspapers.com/image/548393262 

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Notes:

1. Mason, Alice. “Biography from 2003.” Find a Grave. Memorial page for Lena Alice Shoup Mason (2 Apr 1921–18 May 2016), Maintained by DC Mason. My gratitude to DC Mason, as I rely heavily on Shoup Mason’s biography for this work.
2. Mason, Alice. “Biography from 2003.” Find a Grave. Memorial page for Lena Alice Shoup Mason (2 Apr 1921–18 May 2016), Maintained by DC Mason. My gratitude to DC Mason, as I rely heavily on Shoup Mason’s biography for this work.
3. “Anna Fogelman: Anna’s Oral History part 1.” Homefront Heroines: The WAVES of World War II. Copyright 2023. Location: 42:17-46:27.
4. “Yeoman.” Homefront Heroines: The WAVES of World War II. para.1
5. “WAVES Lead Busy Lives at Cedar Falls.” The Gazette. Cedar Rapids, Iowa. 13 June 1943. p. 3.
6. “WAVES Lead Busy Lives at Cedar Falls.” The Gazette. Cedar Rapids, Iowa. 13 June 1943. p. 3.
7. “Duty Stations » Washington, D.C. » 80-G-207702: WAVES activities at Naval Air Station, Washington, September 16, 1943.” National Museum of the U.S. Navy.
8. Mason, Alice. “Biography from 2003.” Find a Grave. Memorial page for Lena Alice Shoup Mason (2 Apr 1921–18 May 2016), Maintained by DC Mason.
9. “WAVES: Quarters D in Washington D.C.: from “Pass in Review D” Gjenvick-Gjonvick Archives. Archivist: Paul K. Gjenvick, MAS. Curator and Content Research: Evelyne B. Gjenvick.
10. “WAVES: Quarters D in Washington D.C.: from “Pass in Review D” Gjenvick-Gjonvick Archives. Archivist: Paul K. Gjenvick, MAS. Curator and Content Research: Evelyne B. Gjenvick.
11. Broderick, Justin T. “U.S. Navy: World War II Enlisted Rates: Specialists.” Uniform Reference.net. Copyright 2013.
12. Mason, Alice. “Biography from 2003.” Find a Grave. Memorial page for Lena Alice Shoup Mason (2 Apr 1921–18 May 2016), Maintained by DC Mason.
13. Most of the following is drawn from Mason, Alice. “Biography from 2003.” Find a Grave. Memorial page for Lena Alice Shoup Mason (2 Apr 1921–18 May 2016), Maintained by DCMason unless otherwise noted.
14. “Shoup” Year: 1920; Census Place: Cane Creek, Lincoln, Arkansas; Roll: T625_70; Page: 17B; Enumeration District: 149.
15. “Shoup.” Year: 1930; Census Place: Precinct 1, Kaufman, Texas; Page: 10A; Enumeration District: 0002; FHL microfilm: 2342100.
16. This direct quote from Mrs. Mason’s biography comes from para. 4.
17. “Mission.” The Eisenhower School for National Security and Resource Strategy. Formerly known as the Industrial College of the Armed Forces.

Featured Image:

“Lena Alice Shoup Mason.” Find a Grave, database and images (https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/178283686/lena-alice-mason: accessed 17 July 2023), memorial page for Lena Alice Shoup Mason (2 Apr 1921–18 May 2016), Find a Grave Memorial ID 178283686, citing Santa Fe National Cemetery, Santa Fe, Santa Fe County, New Mexico, USA; Maintained by DCMason (contributor 47442357).

Related Links:

Broderick, Justin T. “U.S. Navy: World War II Enlisted Rates: Specialists.” Uniform Reference.net. Copyright 2013. Accessed: 17 July 2023. https://uniform-reference.net/insignia/usn/usn_ww2_enl_specialist.html

 “Duty Stations » Washington, D.C. » 80-G-207702: WAVES activities at Naval Air Station, Washington, September 16, 1943.” National Museum of the U.S. Navy. Including a photo captioned: “WAVE activities at Naval Air Station, Washington, September 16, 1943. At District Communications Headquarters, Ensign Beulah Wheeler WV(S), USNR; and Lieutenant Commander L.S. Malnati, USNR. U.S. Navy photograph, now in the collections of the National Archives.” Copyright 2023. Accessed: 17 July 2023. https://www.history.navy.mil/content/history/museums/nmusn/explore/photography/diversity/women-in-the-navy/wwii/duty-stations/washington-dc.html

 Mason, Alice. “Biography from 2003.” Find a Grave, database and images (https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/178283686/lena-alice-mason: accessed 17 July 2023), memorial page for Lena Alice Shoup Mason (2 Apr 1921–18 May 2016), Find a Grave Memorial ID 178283686, citing Santa Fe National Cemetery, Santa Fe, Santa Fe County, New Mexico, USA; Maintained by DCMason (contributor 47442357).

 “Mission.” The Eisenhower School for National Security and Resource Strategy. Formerly known as the Industrial College of the Armed Forces.

 Hosted online by Defense Media Activity – WEB.mil. Copyright 2023. Accessed: 17 July 2023. https://es.ndu.edu/about/mission/

 “WAVES: Quarters D in Washington D.C.: from “Pass in Review D” Gjenvick-Gjonvick Archives. Archivist: Paul K. Gjenvick, MAS. Curator and Content Research: Evelyne B. Gjenvick. (2018-) “The GG Archives is a large, privately held, archive of family history materials, military, and other ephemera dating from the mid 1800s through the 2000s.” Accessed: 17 July 2023. https://www.ggarchives.com/Military/NavyArchives/Brochures/WAVESofQuartersD-1945.html

“Yeoman” and “Anna Fogelman: Anna’s Oral History part 1.” Homefront Heroines: The WAVES of World War II. Copyright 2023. Retrieved: 14 July 2023. https://www.homefrontheroines.com/waves-stories/yeomen/

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