Georgia Jane “Selena” Sampson was born in New York City on November 18, 1915. Although we know little of her life before and after the war, we know she worked as a cashier at the 1940 New York World's Fair, and later as a bookkeeper in New York City prior to enlisting in the Women’s Army Corps in August 1943.

 

Sampson joined the MFAA Branch of the U.S. Group Control Council for Germany in July 1945. She served as a clerk-typist at headquarters in Berlin, preparing reports and files for Monuments Man Lt. Col. Mason Hammond, head of the Branch. During this time, she fell in love with an American soldier, M/Sgt. Gus Paul Madgouranis. Their marriage on July 28, 1945 was announced in Hammond’s official reports. Sampson later worked at the U.S. Secretariat of the Reparations, Deliveries, and Restitutions (RD&R) Directorate before her discharge in November 1945.

 

Selena Madgouranis died in Mesa, Arizona on December 21, 2000. She was buried in the National Memorial Cemetery of Arizona in Phoenix, Arizona.

 

The Foundation is very interested in learning more about Selena Sampson’s life, in particular her military service as a Monuments Woman. If you have any information, please contact abottinelli@monumentsmenfoundation.org.