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Nurses Week 2017, Ten Nurses who served from 1917 thru 1945


kanemono
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Elizabeth Boone Eckman was born in Danville, Pennsylvania on June 21, 1879. Her father was Colonel Charles Wesley Eckman, who commanded the 93rd Pennsylvania Volunteer Infantry during the Civil War. Eckman was also a direct descendant of Daniel Boon on her mothers’ side of the family. She was a graduate of the Pennsylvania Hospital Nursing School, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania and enlisted in the Army Nurse Corps at Philadelphia. During World War I, the federal government’s Department of Military Relief formed a number of Red Cross Base Hospitals in Europe. Each participating hospital was asked to raise funds to equip a 500 bed facility and provide trained staff. In 1917, Pennsylvania Hospital established U.S. Hospital Base No. 10. Eckman was assigned to Base Hospital No. 10. They sailed on the S.S. St. Paul, arriving in England on May 28, 1917. After a few days' delay in England the unit was assigned to a station at Le Treport (Seine Inferieure), France, arriving at that station on June 12, 1917. It was one of the original six hospitals assigned to duty with the British and operated No. 16 General Hospital, British Expeditionary Force. The Nursing Staff consisted of 64, including the Matron Miss M. A. Dunlop and 4 civilians, 1 dietician and 3 secretaries. The Hospital remained at Le Treport, attached to the British, during its entire overseas existence. Eckman sailed home from Brest, France, on the S.S. Kaiserine Augusta Victoria. Eckman later served as superintendent of the Bryn Mawr Hospital located on the Main Line, just outside of Philadelphia, at the Good Samaritan Hospital at Lexington, Kentucky, and Head of Nursing at Bloomsburg Hospital, Bloomsburg, Pennsylvania. Elizabeth Boone Eckman died at the Bloomsburg Hospital on January 25, 1941. Captain Elizabeth Boone Eckman received a Victory Medal with a Defensive Sector bar. The Defensive Sector bar was given for participation in any 'minor' battle that is not honored with any of the 'named' Combat Clasps.

 

 

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Ethel R. Boyd was a member of the United States Army Nurse Corps. She was sent to France in 1918 to serve at the U.S. Army Base Hospital No. 54. Camp Hospital No. 54 was established in September, 1918, at Beaulieu, France. The Hospital was located in Château la Roche, a fairly modern, three-story, country estate, built of stone, however, the château had been unoccupied for many years was not in a good state of repair. The area served by the hospital was occupied by the 84th Division. The normal capacity of hospital was 150 beds. On October 2, 1918, Field Hospital No. 333 took over Hospital No. 54, and its designation was changed to Camp Hospital No. 78. The personnel were transferred to the new organization for duty. . The normal bed capacity was 150, but during the epidemic of influenza in October, 1918, six ward tents, capacity of about 20 cots each, were erected on the hospital grounds for convalescent patients. The hospital ceased to function with the departure of the 84th Division on November 30, 1918, and its personnel was reassigned.

 

 

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Mary Isabel Turn was born in Bushkill, Pennsylvania on November 26, 1889. She was a member of the United States Army Nurse Corps. Turn was sent to France on August 10, 1918 to serve at the U.S. Army Base Hospital No. 54. Camp Hospital No. 54 was established in September, 1918, at Beaulieu, France. The Hospital was located in Château la Roche, a fairly modern, three-story, country estate, built of stone, however, the château had been unoccupied for many years was not in a good state of repair. The area served by the hospital was occupied by the 84th Division. The normal capacity of hospital was 150 beds. On October 2, 1918, Field Hospital No. 333 took over Hospital No. 54, and its designation was changed to Camp Hospital No. 78. The personnel were transferred to the new organization for duty. . The normal bed capacity was 150, but during the epidemic of influenza in October, 1918, six ward tents, capacity of about 20 cots each, were erected on the hospital grounds for convalescent patients. The hospital ceased to function with the departure of the 84th Division on November 30, 1918, and its personnel was reassigned. Mary Isabel Turn Watkins died in East Stroudsburg, Pennsylvania on January 31, 1963.

 

 

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Estelle L. Dawson born in Montandon, Pennsylvania on September 2, 1887, She lived in Sunbury Pennsylvania and was a graduate of the Pennsylvania Hospital Nursing School, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. Dawson enlisted in the Army Nurse Corps at Philadelphia, Pennsylvania in May of 1917. During World War I, the federal government’s Department of Military Relief formed a number of Red Cross Base Hospitals in Europe. Each participating hospital was asked to raise funds to equip a 500 bed facility and provide trained staff. In 1917, Pennsylvania Hospital established U.S. Hospital Base No. 10. Eckman was assigned to Base Hospital No. 10. They sailed on the S.S. St. Paul, arriving in England on May 28, 1917. After a few days' delay in England the unit was assigned to a station at Le Treport (Seine Inferieure), France, arriving at that station on June 12, 1917. It was one of the original six hospitals assigned to duty with the British and operated No. 16 General Hospital, British Expeditionary Force. The Nursing Staff consisted of 64, including the Matron Miss M. A. Dunlop and 4 civilians, 1 dietician and 3 secretaries. The Hospital remained at Le Treport, attached to the British, during its entire overseas existence. Eckman sailed home from Brest, France, on the S.S. Kaiserine Augusta Victoria on April 8, arrived in the United States on April 17, 1919.

 

 

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Mary Elizabeth Memmert was born in Nazareth, Pennsylvania on February 28, 1896. She graduated from the Germantown School for Nurses on May 29, 1917. She joined the Army Nurse Corps on April 6, 1917. Memmert’s first assignment was at the U.S. Army Hospital at Ellis Island, New York. On June 11, 1918 she was sent with the A.E.F. to Base Hospital 43, Blois, France. During World War I, the city of Blois was home to a reclassification camp for officers and a concentration/reclassification camp for soldiers discharged from the American Expeditionary Forces hospitals. Base Hospital 43 occupied 7 buildings, the Staff was divided into surgical and medical teams that worked together in shifts. Although organized as a 500-bed unit, the normal capacities of the facilities were 1000 beds. In an emergency, it could expand to 1397 beds. By the end of World War, the census would climb to over 2000 patients. Memmert’s next assignment was at the American Red Cross Headquarters in Paris, France. She was then transferred to Roosevelt Hospital's World War I unit, Base Hospital No. 15, for the casualties of Verdun, Belleau Wood, and Chateau Theirry. Two doctors and six nurses were killed while serving at Base Hospital No. 15. Col. Charles Peck, the unit's commander, was awarded the Distinguished Service Medal and four nurses received the Croix de Guerre. On January 7, 1919, Base Hospital No. 90 was transferred to Chaumont, Department of Haute Marne, in the advance section, where it took over the patients and equipment of Base Hospital No. 15. Memmert sailed home to the U.S. on March 25, 1919 then served at Walter Reed General Hospital until she was discharged on January 21, 1921. After being discharged from the Army she worked as a private nurse. Mary Elizabeth Memmert died on February 28, 1896.

 

 

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Nurse Emma Jane Petach was the wife of John E. Petach, Jr. who was born July 15, 1918. In 1939 Petach received a degree in chemical engineering from New York University. Upon graduation he applied to US Navy for admittance to the aviation program. Petach was accepted and received his flight training at the Pensacola Naval Air Station. He flew various Naval aircraft and was assigned to a Scout Bomber Squadron, VS-42 aboard the USS Ranger. In 1941 Petach joined the American Volunteer Group or AVG to fly for China. He flew P40-E fighters and shot down three Japanese bombers on January 23, 1942. On July 4, 1942, the AVG passed out of existence when the Army Air Force took over with its 23rd Fighter Group. Almost all of the original flying Tigers returned home but Petach was asked to stay to help train the newly formed Fighter Group. He was going to return home with the girl he recently married, one of the two AVG nurses, Emma Jane “Red” Foster. On July 10, 1942 he went on a mission and on a dive bombing run, he was hit by ground fire, his ship went down and he was killed. Emma Jane Foster from Bellefonte, Pennsylvania, a Penn State graduate, was the only RN to serve in China with the AVG. On February 16, 1942, she and Pete Petach were married by AVG Chaplain Paul Frillmanin in Kunming, China. Emma Jane Petach, returned home in August of 1942. Their daughter, Joan Claire Petach was born in February of 1943. For the remainder of the war, she continued her nursing career and taught for two years in the Yale School of Nursing. After the war she continued her career as Executive Director of the Pennsylvania Health Council. In 1964, she married Fletcher C. Hanks. Emma Jane Hanks later served as President of the Maryland Public Health Association and was Director of the Dauphin County TB Society. Emma Jane Foster Hanks died on October 17, 2009. The silver cigarette case, Chinese wings and insignia belonged to Emma Jane “Red” Petach Hanks. The silver cigarette case was made by Marathon and was a birthday present that “Jane” could never give to “Pete” since he died five days before his birthday.

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Mary Sanders Price was born in Johnstown, Pennsylvania, on January 5, 1905. She was a 1926 graduate of Bucknell University, Lewisburg, Pennsylvania and taught high school for four years before attending the Johns Hopkins Hospital School of Nursing. After graduating from nursing school she worked at the Johns Hopkins Hospital, Baltimore, Maryland, from 1934 until 1939 when she became the director of instruction at Rhode Island General Hospital, provenance, Rhode Island. Sanders returned to the Johns Hopkins Hospital in 1941. She was appointed chief nurse of the Johns Hopkins 118th General Hospital Unit on April 20, 1942 and was commissioned as a Lieutenant in the United States Army Nurse Corps. The 118th General Hospital was a U.S. Military Hospital formed by doctors and nurses from the Johns Hopkins University Hospital. The hospital staff arrived in Sidney Australia during June of 1942 and ran a 400-bed hospital with a building for U.S. troops on the grounds the Hydro Majestic Hotel. Eleonore Roosevelt, wife of President Franklin D. Roosevelt visited the Hospital on September 8, 1943. Major Mary Sanders, the chief nurse of 118th General Hospital, was promoted to the rank of Lieutenant Colonel, one of the first American women to earn that status. The Johns Hopkins 118th General Hospital Unit then served in New Guinea and in Leyte, Philippine Islands which would be the last major assignment for the Johns Hopkins Hospital doctors and nurses. On September 25, 1945 Lieutenant Colonel Mary Sanders married Army Chaplain, Captain Harry Price, in the chapel of the 118th General Hospital in Leyte. Mary Sanders Price was Honorably Discharged from the United States Army Nurse Corps on March 25, 1946. After the war she served on the faculty of the University of Pittsburgh’s School of Nursing and in 1948 earned a Masters of Arts degree from the Teachers' College at Columbia University. In 1952 Price became director of the School of Nursing and Nursing Service at the Johns Hopkins Hospital and served at that post until she retired in 1970. Mary Sanders Price died at Selinsgrove, Pennsylvania, on January 20, 1985.

 

 

 

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Mary Magdalene Beechwood was born in Utica, New York on October 3, 1918. She was a graduate of Utica High School and a 1940 graduate of the Utica State Hospital School of Nursing. Beechwood enlisted in the United States Naval Reserve Nurse Corps as an Ensign, at Rome, New York on February 16, 1942. Ensign Mary Magdalene Beechwood was assigned, as a nurse, at the Hospital, Naval Air Technical Training Center, Memphis, Tennessee. This was a primary flight training center for aviators it had a training capacity of about 600 flight cadets, and could support up to 10,000 cadets for ground crew training. Beechwood worked in the Surgical and Medical wards and trained enlisted WAVE corpsmen. She was promoted to Chief Nurse on October 1, 1944. Lieutenant Mary Beechwood Vergalito resigned from the United States Naval Reserve Nurse Corps at Rome New York, on October 9, 1953. Mary Beechwood Vergalito died in Rome, New York on October, 30, 2004. She is buried in St Mary's Cemetery, Rome, New York.

 

 

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Elva Gertrude Greene was born in Sandy, Utah, on December 12, 1920. She graduated with a degree in nursing from the University of Nebraska in May of 1943. Greene enlisted in the United States Army Nurse Corps on January 4, 1944. She departed for England on April 8, 1944 to serve at the 187th General Hospital near Tidworth, England. The 187th General Hospital was designed to treat wounded from the Normandy invasion. The entire hospital was set up in Quonset huts that had hard pitch mastic floors and were heated with little coal burning stoves. Eight nurses were housed in each Quonset hut. The Doctors and nurses worked twelve-hour shifts seven days a week treating all types of severe wounds including burns, gunshot wounds and fractures. Greene worked at the 187th General Hospital until she returned to the United States on August 11, 1945. She was assigned to work at the Fitzsimons Army Hospital, Denver, Colorado, where she received an Honorable Discharge from the United States Army Nurse Corps on November 11, 1945. Elva Gertrude Greene Post died in Gainesville, Florida, on September 24, 1994. She is buried in Arlington National Cemetery.

 

 

 

 

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Norma Jean Kremis was born in Greenville, Pennsylvania on September 5, 1922. She was a 1943 graduate of Slippery Rock State Teachers College in Slippery Rock, Pennsylvania. Kermis worked as a Physical Education teacher at Franklin High School at the Franklin School District in Franklin, Pennsylvania, before enlisting in the WAVES in 1944. She attended the V-9 program, the United States Navy Midshipman’s School at Smith College in Northampton, Massachusetts which was the training grounds for junior officers of the Woman’s Reserve of the U.S. Naval Reserve (WAVES). The Naval Training Station at Northampton was nicknamed "U.S.S. Northampton.” After graduation she was assigned to Naval Operations at the Navy Department, Washington D.C. Kremis served at Naval Operations until she was Honorably Discharged from the United States Navy on June 20, 1946. After the war she worked as the Director of Guidance in the West Allis School District in Milwaukee, Wisconsin. Kremis was a Red Cross Volunteer for at least fifteen years. Norma Jean Kremis died in Milwaukee, Wisconsin on July 23, 1998.

 

 

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rustywings

A terrific concept for a thread! Thank you for taking the time to share your ten excellent Nurse groupings with us!

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AMAZING thread on AMAZING women! Thank you so much for taking the time to post these wonderful groupings!

 

...Kat

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Fantastic groups, Dick! Just amazing amount of research to bring the memory of these women to the forefront.

 

I was just talking with a friend last night and said, "This is why I collect...the "stuff" is just the conduit that forces us to revive the memory of the women and men who served." You have done a magnificent job of doing that.

 

Keep on researching and writing (and when you can, share it with us. I really enjoy what you post!).

 

John

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Thank you very much for your comments. These women plus other women who were not nurses will be in my new book. The book will tell the story and show medal groupings and artifacts of 150 men and women who have served the United States from the Revolutionary War to the Korean War. The book will have 1220 color photographs of medals and artifacts and 226 sepia and black and white period photographs. There are portraits and photographs of most of the people in the book. I had the records of each individual researched at the National and State Archives and have also included the history of when and where they served. There is a chapter on research and an index of identifying the medals pictured in the book. The title of the book has not been finalized at this time. It will be released next spring by Schiffer Publishing.

Dick

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The book sounds amazing! I look forward to getting your book. Please keep us updated on your progress.

 

...Kat

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Great collection, Dick. Look forward to your book. Regards......Bob ------

 

P.S. My Aunt Dolorez (Dolly) Gill from Tipperary, Ireland became an Army nurse before Pearl Harbaor. and served in the So. Pacific on the island of New Caledonia. Post-war she resided in Santa Rosa, California where she passed away.. She was then Mrs. George Kunkle. Regrettably I have no photos or memorabilia. Bob

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Here is a group to a Red Cross worker who served during WW2 in the CBI theater.

 

Frieda M. T. Peterson was born on Sullivan’s Island, South Carolina on March 9, 1914. She was brought up in Charleston, South Carolina, and attended Newberry Business College in Newberry, South Carolina. In 1944 Peterson joined the American Red Cross and was assigned to the 181st General Hospital, Karachi, India where she was a Hospital Secretary. With the lowest priority of all the theaters of World War II, the China-Burma-India throughout the period 1942-44, lacked sufficient Medical Departments for supporting thousands of Chinese troops with a considerable portion of their hospitalization and medical supplies. Besides supporting the U.S. Army Air Forces and ground troops in the area, the U.S. Army Medical Department was called on to train and support Chinese divisions for the struggle against the Japanese in Burma and China. The Army Medical Department in the theater labored under two handicaps, the low priority of the theater for supplies and personnel, and the isolation of the China side of the theater from the India side by the Japanese invasion of Burma. Between 1942 and 1946 fifty-nine hospitals were created in the China-Burma-India-Theatre. These hospitals ranged from small MASH units to General Hospitals with over 1000 beds. Peterson was assigned to work as a secretary at the 181st General Hospital, Karachi, India which was one of the largest General Hospitals in the China-Burma-India-Theatre. Karachi was the transport hub of the region. On November 19, 1945 Peterson sailed on the S.S. General W.A. Greely from the port of Calcutta, India, via Colombo, Ceylon arriving at the Port of New York City, New York on December 5, 1945. Frieda Peterson married Robert Caldwell Jones on February 21, 1948, in Spartanburg, South Carolina. She was employed in the Agronomy Division of the Soil Conservation Service in South Carolina.

 

 

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