Mary Sims Chikis

BIOGRAPHY

Mary Sims Chikis was born in North Dakota, USA, on 14 August 1915. She was one of nine children. She grew up helping on her family’s large working farm, milking cows by the age of ten and assisting with plowing fields by twelve. Her family raised much of their own food. Her parents were devout Catholics, and their faith was central to their lives. Even in the harsh Dakota winters, they ventured out each week to attend church services.

At 19, Mary left home for Minneapolis, where she worked for several years until the outbreak of World War II. When she learned that the Navy shipyard in Portland was hiring, she packed her bags and moved once again. In Portland, she met the man who would become her first husband. They courted for just six months before he was deployed overseas to fight.

Undeterred, Mary enlisted in the Navy herself, becoming a WAVE (Women Accepted for Volunteer Emergency Service). After completing six weeks of training in New York, she was stationed in Washington, D.C., where she lived in a barracks with 1,000 other women. She worked as a commissary hostess and supervised a team of ninety women.

After the war, Mary briefly returned to her family’s farm, but her stay was short-lived. Her boyfriend, now back from the war, persuaded her to move to his hometown of Oakdale, California, even arranging a place for her to stay. After just one more month of courtship, they married and eventually had two children. When their eldest, Carolyn, was two, they moved to Seacliff. There, he built the house where they raised their family and where Mary would live for the next sixty years.

RECOGNITION

Her age has not been validated.

ATTRIBUTION

* “Mary Sims Chikis Early Seacliff Resident, Turns 99 Years Old” – TPG Online Daily, 25 September 2014

* “Valley woman celebrates 110th birthday” – 12 News, 15 August 2025

GALLERY

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