Mary Katherine Teresa Scales; Recreational Therapist

Mary Katherine Teresa Scales, who used recreational therapy to help World War II veterans recover from their injuries and started volunteer programs at hospitals throughout the Southland, has died of cancer at her Van Nuys home. She was 79.

Ms. Scales worked at Veterans Administration Medical Center in Long Beach from 1946 to 1958, planning outings for patients and cheering them up by wearing crazy hats topped with mobiles and other decorations, said Dr. Shirley Fannin, trustee of her estate.

On her departure from the hospital, the Long Beach City Council declared May 1, 1958, Mary Scales Day.

She then spent the next 16 years promoting volunteerism in hospitals including Cedars of Lebanon Hospital in Los Angeles, now called Cedars-Sinai Medical Center; Los Angeles County-USC Medical Center; Childrens Hospital of Orange County and Los Robles Regional Medical Center in Thousand Oaks. She continued to consult with hospitals about volunteerism after retiring from Los Robles in 1974.

Ms. Scales died Friday in Van Nuys, where she had lived since 1968.

Born Mary Katherine Teresa Zentgraf on Feb. 25, 1911, in Pittsburgh, Pa., she was a recruiter in the Women’s Army Corps from 1939 to 1946, achieving the rank of captain. She married Ben Scales in 1939 and the couple divorced in 1968. They had no children.

Her guiding principle was to “try not to harm anyone,” Fannin said. On her job application for Los Robles, she wrote: “When people are in hard times, they become wonderfully strong. It’s the little things that we have problems with.”

She is survived by several nieces and nephews in Pennsylvania.

At her request, there will be no funeral service and she will be buried at sea. In lieu of flowers, donations can be made to Chi Kappa Rho, a women’s business sorority of which she was a founding member. Pierce Brothers Meyer-Mitchell Mortuary in Van Nuys is handling the arrangements.