Posted on: Wednesday, May 16, 2001

Arline Weyand, 'First Lady of U.S. Army,' dead at 86

By Walter Wright
Advertiser Staff Writer

The woman known as "First Lady of the U.S. Army" while her husband was its chief of staff has died in Honolulu.

Arline L. Weyand, who lived in Honolulu with her husband, Fred, after his retirement in 1976, died Monday. She was 86.

A native of Healdsburg, Calif., Arline Langhart met Fred Weyand more than 60 years ago when she was a student at San Jose State University and he was attending the University of California at Berkeley.

They married in 1940, just before he began an Army career that would take him into combat in Korea, to the command of Hawai'i's 25th Division, and eventually to the U. S. Army's top post, chief of staff at the Pentagon. They moved 26 times during her husband's 36-year career.

Her husband, who was away during the births of their two children and for much of their childhood, said Arline "really raised the kids by herself a lot of the time, and did a beautiful job of it."

Weyand received national attention in 1950 when she mobilized her hometown to adopt Fred Weyand's unit — the 1st Battalion, 7th Infantry Regiment — in combat in Korea.

"We had gotten pretty badly beat up in combat at the Chosin Reservoir, and my guys lost all their stuff," Gen. Weyand said. "Arline got the whole town of Healdsburg to collect stuff, and pretty soon we were getting apple boxes full of toothpaste, shaving gear, writing paper — even comic books and food.

"They all loved her for what she did for them at a very tough time."

Earlier this year, Weyand was named lifetime honorary president of the Hui O Na Wahine, an Army wives' group at Schofield Barracks, where she had been "First Lady of the 25th Division" from 1964 to 1966.

Weyand is survived by her husband; a son, Robert, of London; daughters Carolyn Harley of St. John's, Newfoundland and Nancy Hart of Lahaina, Maui; and six grandchildren.

Services will be held at 3 p.m. Sunday at Fort DeRussy Chapel. No flowers. The family prefers donations to the Alzheimer's Association.