Viola Marie (Rice) Hornbake

Storekeeper 2/c WAVES

Viola was born on 24 February 1918 in Connellsville, the oldest of three daughters born to the late Walter and maria (Fasano) Rice.

Viola enlisted in the WAVES (Women Accepted for Voluntary Emergency Service), the women's division of the Naval Reserves, in March 1943, after having served as manager of the shoe department at the former G.C. Murphy Department Store.

Viola entered active service on 03 May 1943, being first sent to Hunter College in the Bronx, New York, for Boot Camp Training. She was promoted to Petty Officer, Second Class, and after a brief assignment in Washington D.C., served as Storekeeper Second Class at the Philadelphia Naval

Yard until her discharge in November 1945. she married Alan W. Hornbake, of Brownsville, on 17 June 1946. They resided in McKeesport, until returning to Connellsville in the 1990's.

They had two children, Alan W. Hornbake, Jr., of North Huntingdon, PA, and the late Mrs. Mary Ann Peterson, of Greensburg. Mrs. Hornbake died on 04 February 2001 at the age of 82, and is buried in the Jefferson Memorial Cemetery, in Pittsburgh.