North Dakota Nurses Over There
“In the First World War 225 women from North Dakota served as US Army and Red Cross registered nurses. Tender stories of the care of wounded and dying US soldiers and the near impossible demands of dealing with the 1918 influenza epidemic are described in this book. Hard work, sleeplessness, sickness, squalor, sadness, and privation are balanced with self-effacement, commitment, and often a wry humor in their stories. Five nurses died and the 220 who returned to their lives in America were changed women.”
“North Dakota Nurses Over There 1917-1919” by Grace E. F. Holmes, MD is being sold by the American Legion Auxiliary Department of North Dakota. This book tells the personal stories of nurses from North Dakota who served during World War I.
The book may be also be purchased through the ND ALA Department office for $25; or $33.50 if you want the book mailed to you. Please use the above order form. Checks may be made payable to “American Legion Auxiliary Dept of ND” with Nurses Book in the memo line. You may also email orders to nurses@ndala.org.
Address for purchases:
American Legion Auxiliary
Department of ND
1801 23rd Avenue N, Rm 113
Fargo, ND 58102-1047
If you are in the Fargo area, and want to pick up the book, the office is located at the Old Hector Airport Terminal (1801 23rd Ave N, Room 113).
All proceeds are going toward a scholarship fund set up with the Department of ND Past Presidents Parley as the Dr. Grace E.F. Holmes Nursing Scholarship.
Nurses book excerpt on Road to the Great War blog
Grace E. F. Holmes, MD
Meet the author, Grace E. F. Holmes, MD (1932-2023)
Past Professor of Pediatrics and Preventive Medicine Emerita
University of Kansas School of Medicine
She was born into a Lutheran parsonage in Crookston, Minnesota, early on a very cold Easter Sunday morning in 1932, the second child of what would eventually be six children in the family. A wonderful childhood was spent in Eldorado in NE Iowa, followed by high school days both in Iowa and later in northeastern Washington State. Graduation with a BA degree from Pacific Lutheran University in Parkland, Washington in 1953, was followed by admission to the University of Washington School of Medicine in Seattle. She married Frederick Holmes, a medical school classmate in 1955 and they graduated together in 1957 with MD degrees. A Rotating Internship followed at the University of Kansas Medical Center, (KUMC), Kansas City, Kansas, (1957-1958).
She studied at The London School of Tropical Medicine and Hygiene (1959) and proceeded to Malaysia to work in the Lutheran Church Clinics (1959-1963). She continued pediatric training at KUMC with a Fellowship in Children’s Rehabilitation (1963–1967), and then joined the KUMC faculty (1967–1970). Off to East Africa she helped open the new Kilimanjaro Christian Medical Centre in Moshi, Tanzania (1970–1972). She rejoined the KUMC Pediatric faculty on return from Africa in 1972 and later also joined the Preventive Medicine faculty in 1978 and continued in both departments until her retirement in July 2000.
Throughout her career, her clinical, teaching and research interests clearly reflected her pediatric training and experience with both normal and atypical growth and development of infants and young children. She published 55 papers in scholarly journals and three books. For over a decade she pursued research in Medicine in the First World War during her retirement.