Betty Ellen Mallue was one of the first women in Buffalo, New York, to join the Women’s Army Corp (WACs).
A graduate of School 63 Bennett High School in Buffalo, she attended Buffalo State Teacher’s College. There she became a member of the Pi Pi chapter of Alpha Sigma Alpha. Mallue earned a bachelor’s in home economics and graduated in 1940. She worked as a dietitian at the Adam, Meldrum & Anderson Company until she entered the WACs in 1941.
Her training was at Des Moines, Iowa and she was commissioned as a second lieutenant. Her first post was as dietitian in charge of the officers’ mess in Des Moines.
She was promoted to first lieutenant four months later. Mallue spent 18 months in Des Moines and was then transferred to Camp Ritchie in Maryland. She served as dietitian there until her discharge in 1945.
After her return to civilian life she returned to work as a dietitian at the Adam, Meldrum & Anderson Company. Illness forced her to retire in 1947.
She died at the Veterans Administration hospital in Buffalo on March 28, 1952. She was 32 years of age.
