Doris Virginia Olsen

Doris Virginia (Springer) Olsen passed away peacefully in Vacaville on Friday, Nov. 19.

She was born in Portland, Ore., on Dec. 6, 1915, the youngest child of George W. and Flora Elizabeth (Coss) Springer.

After graduating from the University of Oregon in Eugene with a B.A. in journalism, she joined the U.S. Army's first company of women when the Women's Army Auxiliary Corps was organized at the outset of World War II. She later transferred to the Women's Army Corps, where she was ultimately promoted to the rank of captain and served as a recruiter and a personal affairs officer. During the infrastructure building boom following the war and the end of her military career, she worked for the U.S. Department of the Interior's Bureau of Reclamation in Sacramento.

It was then that she married career Air Force pilot Maj. (Ret.) Theodore G. Olsen and traveled with her soon-to-become family of four children. She moved to Vacaville in 1957 when her husband transferred to Travis Air Force Base after tours in Guam and Hawaii.

She is survived by those children: daughter, Ingrid and her husband, John Lodin, of Concord; daughter, Nancy A. Olsen of Vacaville; daughter, Deborah and her husband, James Moehrke, of Vacaville; and son, Theodore G. Olsen and his wife, Colleen Carr, of La Mesa.

In addition to raising her family, her career included work with the Girl Scouts of America in Yolo and Solano counties, the Vallejo chapter of the American Red Cross, and 17 years with the Social Services departments of Solano and Contra Costa counties. She was active in Vacaville's Community Presbyterian Church and volunteered for many years with the Vaca FISH program. She lived a full life and was particularly proud of being poet laureate of the Mythmakers, a creative writing group at Vacaville's McBride Senior Center, as well as her book of poetry, "Now and Then: My Symphony," published in 2009.

She is also survived by eight grandchildren, R. Joseph Mesta of Crestview, Fla., Katrina Buehrer Salas of Martinez, Melanie Buehrer Buck of Vallejo, Audrey Mesta Whirlow of Berkeley, Benjamin DiRenzo of Thousand Oaks, Nicholas DiRenzo of Boulder, Colo., Ted Moehrke of Vacaville and Stuart Olsen of La Mesa; and soon to be eight great-grandchildren.

She will be missed by her family and her many lifelong friends.

Services will be held at 2 p.m. today at Community Presbyterian Church, 425 Hemlock St., Vacaville. Arrangements are by McCune Garden Chapel, 448-6546, www.mccunechapel.com.