Jacqueline Pfleghaar

1923 - 2022

News story
By Mike Sigov
Blade staff writer

Jacqueline Pfleghaar of Maumee, a mother of seven who was an Army nurse during World War II, died Wednesday at McLaren St. Luke's Hospital. She was 98.

She died after a short illness, said her daughter Stephanie Forney. The cause of death was not available.

Mrs. Pfleghaar retired in 1983 from Gateway Middle School, where she was a cashier for 15 years after bringing up her children following the war.

"She was a soft-spoken, caring woman, who loved her big family," Mrs. Forney said. "She sometimes spoke of caring for wounded soldiers, many of whom were severely injured. That stuck with her because she felt really sorry for them."

In 2016, at age 92, Mrs. Pfleghaar joined about 95 other veterans on a trip to Washington through Honor Flight Dayton, where she was honored for her military service while visiting the nation's war and military memorials.

"She enjoyed every minute of it," Mrs. Forney said, adding that her mother was one of two female veterans participating on that trip to the Capitol.

Mrs. Pfleghaar was born July 31, 1923, in Port Clinton to Iva and Kent Wedekind. She was their only child.

A 1941 graduate of Port Clinton High School, she later received a nursing license from the former Toledo Hospital School of Nursing in 1944.

She worked as a staff nurse at what then was Fletcher General Hospital in Cambridge, Ohio, for a short time until she resigned April 13, 1945 to volunteer to serve in the Army.

Assigned to active duty May 14, 1945, Mrs. Pfleghaar then served stateside, caring for injured soldiers through the tail end of the war.

During the war, she was stationed at what then was Regional Hospital Fort Knox, Ky. After the war, she served at the former Wakeman General Hospital in Atterbury, Ind., until she was honorably discharged in 1947 with the rank of first lieutenant.

In 1948, she married Donald Pfleghaar, a Toledo Edison lineman who was a Marine Corps veteran of World War II.

In 1949, the Pfleghaars settled in Maumee, where they later raised their children, one of whom died in infancy. Mr. Pfleghaar died in 2015.

"She was the most caring person you could find," Nancy Snyder, her other daughter, said. "She was a gentle, very, very smart woman."

Mrs. Pfleghaar was a lifelong member of St. Joseph Catholic Church, Maumee, where she was active in the Rosary Altar Society.

In her free time, she liked to be with her family. She also enjoyed baking, cooking, reading, playing bridge, and traveling in the Eastern states and Canada.

Along with her husband of 67 years, she was preceded in death by two daughters.

Surviving are her sons, Christopher, Timothy, and Matthew Pfleghaar; daughters, Stephanie Forney and Nancy Snyder; 14 grandchildren; and 13 great-grandchildren.

Visitation will be from 9 a.m. to 10 a.m. Tuesday at the church, where a funeral Mass will immediately follow.

Arrangements are by Maison Dardenne-Walker Funeral Home.

The family suggests tributes to the church or Honor Flight Dayton.