Hidden away in the Frances Fishburn Archives are the numerous stories of Park women of historic importance. Shirley Anne Gresham O’Brien, a Park College graduate of 1941, is one such woman to be remembered during Women’s History Month.
Her family, the Greshams, are a longtime Park family. Her father, Grover Cleveland Gresham, was a Parkville politician and postmaster. Grover and his wife, Caroline Ashby Gresham, began to court as teenagers, while Grover attended Park College Academy. They married in 1914 and had four children, of which Shirley was the third.
Shirley was born on July 23, 1919, in Parkville, Mo. She went to Park Hill High School and graduated in 1937. In 1941, she graduated from Park College with a degree in English.
As World War II intensified, Shirley felt the call-to-duty and was commissioned as a Naval Aviator in the United States Marine Corps Women’s Reserve (USMCWR). There is little written about her specifically, but the women of the MCWR, were trained at the U.S. Naval Midshipmen’s School in Mt. Holyoke College, Mass. The training was partly shared with the US Navy Women’s Reserve (WAVES), but towards the latter half of the training became Marine Corps focused.
After her training, Shirley served as a 2nd Lt. in Company A, First HQ Battalion, USMC Headquarters, in Washington, D.C. By 1945, Shirley had been promoted to 1st Lt. and was stationed at Henderson Hall in Arlington, Va. After the war ended, 1st Lt. Gresham was honorably discharged.
After her service, she joined the National Agricultural Engineering Corporation (NAEC). This firm was headed by Edwin l. O’Brien, whom Shirley would marry several years later in 1958. O’Brien was the associate manager of the NAEC. Shirley worked as O’Brien’s secretary for two years while the NAEC operated in China, from 1946 to 1949. O’Brien remained overseas in the far east working to rebuild the world after the destruction of World War II.
Shirley returned to Parkville, Mo., in 1948. She obtained membership in the American Legion. In 1958, she married O’Brien. For work, Shirley became a managing director for several department stores in the Parkville area.
O’Brien returned to the states in 1956 and entered Park College. He did not get his degree from Park until 1970. However, O’Brien worked at Park as the registrar for 13 years, beginning in 1964, the same year he received a B.A. from Missouri-Columbia. O’Brien became a professor emeritus at Park College.
Shirley had three children, one of whom died in infancy. She had two stepchildren. O’Brien passed away on Aug. 25, 1983. Shirley passed away on Nov. 10, 2000. She was buried in Walnut Grove Cemetery.
Like many women who served in World War II, it was only a part of their life. Very few women talked much about their time in the service and even fewer continued their military service after the war. But Park never forgot this hero and alumna.
