Maria Gulovich Liu

Maria Gulovich Liu (; October 19, 1921 – September 25, 2009) was a Slovak schoolteacher who joined the overground resistance during World War II. She was awarded the Bronze Star for her "heroic and meritorious" service in aiding agents of the American Office of Strategic Services (OSS) and British intelligence escape Nazi-occupied territory during the winter of 1944-1945.

Biography Gulovich was born in Litmanová, Czechoslovakia, on October 19, 1921. She was the blue-eyed daughter of Edmund Gulovich who was a Greek Catholic village priest and Anastasia who was an elementary school teacher.

From April through June 1944, Gulovich hid the woman and her son in the Hriňová schoolhouse where she taught, allowing them to stay in the living quarters while she slept in the classroom. The Americans asked Gulovich to join them as their translator and guide as they sought to escape from German-occupied territory. Gulovich agreed and helped the Americans obtain provisions, shelter and intelligence as they moved through the Slovak countryside.

Gulovich became an American citizen in 1952 and moved to Oxnard, California and worked for many years as a real estate agent in Ventura County, California. She was married twice and had two children, Edmund E. Peck and Lynn S. Peck, with her first husband, attorney Eugene C. Peck. She later married Hans P. Liu. She had one granddaughter, Elisabeth Maria Peck.

In 1989, Gulovich and other women who had served the OSS were honored with a black-tie dinner for "The Ladies of the OSS" in Washington, D.C. Gulovich was interviewed by a reporter for The Washington Post at the time of the event and was the subject of a feature that drew attention to her story.