Born: 5 November 1881, France
Died: 1957
Country most active: France
Also known as: Françoise, Victoire
The following is excerpted from Infinite Women founder Allison Tyra’s book The View from the Hill: Women Who Made Their Mark After 40.
WWII French resistance member Marie-Louise Dissard, code name Françoise or Victoire, was in her 60s when she took over the escape network known as the Pat O’Leary Line. Born in 1881, Dissard had enlisted as a nurse during the First World War and later opened a clothing shop in Toulouse. In 1940, she worked with the Pierre-Bertaux resistance network, collecting intelligence and distributing resistance publications. When the network was compromised in 1941, she went to ground but continued supporting the imprisoned fighters and their families. The following year, she became a key player in the Pat O’Leary line.
Active across France, it had bases in Marseille and Toulouse—the latter was Dissard’s home, the primary safehouse in Toulouse for Allied soldiers evading the Nazis until they could escape across the Pyrenees. More than 500 air crew passed through her home, and she organized mountain guides and smugglers to get them to safety. When the network was betrayed in February 1943, many of Dissard’s colleagues were arrested, including “Pat O’Leary” himself (real name Albert Guérisse) and the Marseille headquarters was compromised. Those who were not captured scattered across the country. Dissard was warned in time to escape, relocating to Bergerac and taking command of the line. New safehouses were established and new couriers and guides were found for the rechristened “Francoise line.”
After the war, Dissard was given the rank of lieutenant colonel in the French Army and awarded the Legion d’Honneur, the Croix de Guerre 1939-45 with palms, and Medaille de la Resistance with rosette, along with honors from Belgium, the U.S., and U.K.