ARLINGTON, Va. - Martha Schuchart Sachs, 90, a retired Army lieutenant colonel and longtime community volunteer throughout the Washington, D.C., area, died July 31, 2004, at her home in Arlington.
She was born in a log cabin Dec. 17, 1913, on a farm outside Union, Mo., daughter of the late Rudolph Peter and Wilhelmina Hanneken Schuchart. Raised on a dairy farm outside Morehouse, Mo., in her youth she drove farm teams of mules and horses and milked cows by hand.
She graduated in 1932 as valedictorian of Morehouse High School. A graduate of the Cape Girardeau (Mo.) Teacher's College, she had taught in one-room school houses at West Tanner, Greer and Kline, Mo., and also taught at Morehouse and Hayti, Mo.
After teaching for 10 years, she volunteered for the U.S. Army Women's Army Corps in early 1942. During her 25-year career in Army Intelligence, her longest tours of duty occurred at Arlington Hall. Other assignment sites included the Philippines, Germany, Ethiopia, Japan and Edgewood Arsenal, Md., Fort Devon, Mass., and Fort McClellan, Ala. While stationed in Occupied Japan immediately following World War II she volunteered to teach English to Japanese civilians.
After her retirement from the Army Security Agency in 1967, Mrs. Sachs began volunteer work in the Arlington County Courthouse, then later spent 16 years as a volunteer with the Friends of the Arlington County Library, where she managed the intake of donated books and fund-raising sales. Additional volunteer activities in her retirement years included service as a docent at the Arlington County Historical Museum, and with the pregnant panda watch at the National Zoo, where she sat up nights with Ling Ling waiting for her to give birth.
Her many organizational affiliations included active memberships in Zonta Clubs International and Association of Former Intelligence Officers. She served as secretary of the Arlington Historical Society and served one term as president of the Inter-Service Club of Arlington.
She traveled the world extensively throughout her adult life and was a parishioner at St. Ann's Catholic Church in Arlington.
Her husband of 34 years, Retired U.S. Army Reserves Col. Abner Sachs, died in 2000.
Survivors include: two sisters, Alice Schuchart Howard of Los Angeles and Stella Schuchart Foster of Arlington.
She was also preceded in death by five brothers, John Schuchart, Sylvester "Wes" Schuchart, Emil Schuchart, Rudolph "Doc" Schuchart Jr. and Robert Schuchart; and one sister, Ada Schuchart Johnson.
Mrs. Sachs will be buried with full military honors during services set to begin at 12:45 p.m. Sept. 16 in the Fort Myer Chapel of Arlington National Cemetery.
Murphy Funeral Home of Arlington is in charge of arrangements.
Paid obituary