Milrae Nelson Wirsig – Widow Of Army General Senate Staff Member

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From a contemporary news report:

Milrae Nelson Wirsig, 75, a former staff member of the Senate Committee on Foreign Relations, died September 20, 1994 aboard the cruise ship Marco Polo enroute from Tokyo to Kobe, Japan.

Mrs. Wirsig was born in Minden, Nebraska. In 1940, she moved to Washington and worked during World War II as a confidential secretary in the War Department. After the war, she graduated from the University of Nebraska, where she was a member of Phi Beta Kappa.

In 1949, she returned to Washington and became an administrative assistant in the State Department’s office of congressional relations.

In 1956, she joined the staff of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee. Her work there included arranging meetings of congressional delegations with international organizations as well as receptions of foreign visitors. In 1973, she retired from federal service.

In 1976, Mrs. Wirsig married retired Army Major General Otto L. Nelson Jr., for whom she had worked during her years at the War Department during World War II. They lived in Alexandria. General Nelson died in 1985.

Mrs. Wirsig was a member of the Belle Haven Country Club, where she won several golfing events, including senior championships in 1975 and 1986, the chairman’s trophy in 1988 and two Belle Haven Career Women’s Group championships. In 1990, Mrs. Wirsig married Woodrow Wirsig and moved to Florida. At her death, they were living in Palm City. She was a former member of New York Avenue Presbyterian Church in Washington and Westminster Presbyterian Church in Alexandria.

In addition to her husband, survivors include a brother, Vergale L. Jensen of Hastings, Nebraska.

She was granted a waiver in order to be buried with her former husband in Arlington National Cemetery.

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