Nurses Photo Gallery

Juanita "Nita" Hartense (Hamilton) Webster. Ruth's caption on back of photo: "Rita Our living quarters in New Guinea Deluxe!"

Mary Louise "Lou" (Jacobs) Ream likely in Australia in 1942.

Mary "Lou" Jacobs in Australia, 1942.

Left to right: Major Marshall, Lieutenants Woodward, Godwin, and Jacobs. Likely in Australia, 1942. (On the back of another photo of Marshall, Ruth wrote: "Major Marshall from Findley, Ohio Great Guy." [Note: Ruth was born in Reedsburg, Ohio]

Edith Whittaker (left) resting with "Head Nurse", presumably Helen J. "Miss" (Egolff) Gray, in New Guinea

(Left to Right): Alma Elizabeth Mary "Dollie" (Madison) Van De Steeg, Juanita, and Willie Helen Lawson.

Mary "Lou" Jacobs and Lt. Norris taking a break near army hospital at Gatton, Queensland, Australia, in 1942.

Mary Jacobs (left) riding bike with friend, Ruth Baucher, near Army hospital in Australia.

Juanita at Gatton, Queensland, Australia, the first U.S. operational hospital in the area.

Ruth and recovered patient at Gatton, William A. Smith, Seaman 2nd Class. He was a hero of the sinking of the Neosho, the only of two sailors that survived 9 days on a raft in the Battle of the Coral Sea, out of 68 men in four rafts tied together. A rescue plane only spotted them because Will stoo...

Ruth and Kerner at Gatton--first love?

Ruth and Kerner at Gatton. There was time for romance here, if not at New Guinea. despite the rules.

Ruth became a patient at Gatton when she got dengue fever. Could that be Kerner taking her picture?

Ruth showing off on a break at Gatton.

Ruth much later in life, very happy on a visit with her son, Jim, and family in Alaska.

Ruth's caption reads: Dunbar, Whittaker, and Davis. Dunbar and Davis seem to be nurses who arrived at Gatton some time after the first 18 American nurses and mey be either Americans or Australians. Likely Americans because the Australians took over the hospital when the Americans moved to New Gui...

US Army Major Marshall with US Army Nurse Corps Lieutenants "Wood" (presumably Marie "Woodie" Woodward), Jane "Janie" Godwin, and May "Lou" Jacobs.

Jane "Janie" Godwin. Because of uniform and office site, must be at Gatton.

Alma "Dollie" Madison, Juanita "Nita" Hamilton, and Willie Helen Lawson, likely in Australia.

Ruth leads a veteran's day celebration at her housing association's headquarters in the Apple Valley Lake development at Howard, Ohio, before we began living with her in 2012. This was likely the first and last time she allowed any recognition of her service.

From Ruth's scrapbook.

"Bomb Shelter" photo shows (left to right): Juanita Hamilton, Jane Godwin, and Sarah Patterson. “Duo” photo shows Maude Patterson with likely future husband Lt. L. Thompson. (From Ruth’s scrapbook)

Juanita Hamilton, Head Nurse 2nd Lt. Helen Gray, and Helen Lawson. This newspaper made the same mistake of placing the nurses in North Africa, as Look Magazine did.

By the number of photos Ruth took of Mary "Lou" Jacobs, she was Ruth's best friend. Likely at Gatton, almost certainly in Australia.

"Lou" in her room at Gatton--better quarters than she'll get at the evacuation hospital in New Guinea.

"Lou" and Lt. Norris at Gatton.

"Lou" at Gatton.