1st Lieutenant, US Army Nurse Corps, Flora Marjorie Gallaher

Born: May 18, 1908

Died: August 6, 2002

Flora Marjorie Gallaher enlisted in the Army Nurse Corps on June 7, 1943. She was stationed at the Holabird Ordnance Depot Station Hospital in Baltimore, Maryland, after which she sent to Camp Kilmer, New Jersey. She arrived overseas in 1943 and was stationed in Iceland for six months. From there, she was briefly stationed in England before being transferred to France for field duty at the Battle of Normandy. She then served in a hospital in Paris and was transferred to Rome.

For two years, Gallher had no leave from the military, with no direct contact with her family. In September of 1945, she managed to call her sister Zelda from Rome because she “just wanted to hear the voices of her family again.” ⁵

In 1945, she was promoted from second lieutenant to first lieutenant. She was honorably discharged from the Army on January 31, 1945, and received a commendation for her work as a field nurse at the Battle of Normandy.

After the War, she nursed in veterans’ hospitals, after which she entered the public health service. She was employed with the Indian Health Services for 23 years, working in Whiteriver, Alaska, and later San Carlos, Arizona.

Gallaher was married to James Conrad Schmidt on October 4, 1946, in Yavapai, Arizona, and later divorced. She had one daughter. In 1950, she was listed as working as a nurse in Phoenix, Arizona. In 1980, she worked at Mount Graham Community Hospital in Safford, Arizona. After retiring from the hospital, she worked for the local ambulance service.

Gallaher was born in Burnt Cabins in Fulton County, Pennsylvania, to Cora Bell and William H. Gallaher. Her father, who worked at a lumber camp, died when she was three from cerebrospinal meningitis. Her mother died in 1931. She graduated on September 15, 1930, from a three-year Nurses Training School at Nason Hospital in Roaring Spring, near Altoona, Pennsylvania, from which she received the highest honors in the class. After graduating, she worked at Elizabeth Steel McGee Hospital in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. In 1940, she was recorded on the U.S. Census as living in Pittsburgh and working as a hospital nurse.

Gallaher’s career in nursing spanned over 50 years. The Huntingdon Daily News described Gallaher, “Her fifty years of nursing can be summed up as a person who has dedicated her life to serving people and one who has never deviated from that purpose.” ⁶

Images & Documents

Notes:

1. Ancestry.com. Arizona, U.S., Select Marriages, 1888-1908 [database on-line]. Provo, UT, USA: Ancestry.com Operations, Inc., 2014.
2. Ancestry.com. Arizona, U.S., County Marriage Records, 1865-1972 [database on-line]. Lehi, UT, USA: Ancestry.com Operations, Inc., 2016.
3. Ancestry.com. U.S., City Directories, 1822-1995 [database on-line]. Lehi, UT, USA: Ancestry.com Operations, Inc., 2011.
4. Ancestry.com. Pennsylvania, U.S., Veteran Compensation Application Files, WWII, 1950-1966 [database online]. Lehi, UT, USA: Ancestry.com Operations, Inc., 2015.
5. “Army Nurse Calls Sister from Rome,” The Morning Call, September 13, 1945, 19.
6. “Flora Gallaher Cited by Nurses, “Huntingdon Daily News, October 31, 1980, 29.
7. “Flora M. Gallaher is 1st Lt.,” Huntingdon Daily News, March 6, 1945, 6.
8. “Flora M. Gallaher,” Eastern Arizona Courier, Aug 14, 2002. https://www.eacourier.com/obituaries/flora-m-gallaher/article_48184526-342e-5e59-a703-e3066bb09d45.html
9. “Former Resident Now Army Nurse Phones from Italy,” The Daily News, September 17, 1945, 6.
10. “Graduate Nurses to Hear Sermon,” Altoona Mirror, September 19, 1930, 30.
11. “Nason Hospital Nurses Graduate,” Altoona Mirror, October 1, 1930, 31.
12. Pennsylvania Historical and Museum Commission; Harrisburg, Pennsylvania; Pennsylvania (State). Birth certificates, 1906–1913; Box Number: 159; Certificate Number Range: 074085-077010
13. “Serving in Iceland,” Huntingdon Daily News, January 22, 1944, 6.
14. United States of America, Bureau of the Census; Washington, D.C.; Seventeenth Census of the United States, 1950; Record Group: Records of the Bureau of the Census, 1790-2007; Record Group Number: 29; Residence Date: 1950; Home in 1950: Maricopa, Arizona; Roll: 4698; Sheet Number: 75; Enumeration District: 7-157
15. Year: 1910; Census Place: Dublin, Fulton, Pennsylvania; Roll: T624_1348; Page: 10B; Enumeration District: 0048; FHL microfilm: 1375361
16. Year: 1940; Census Place: Pittsburgh, Allegheny, Pennsylvania; Roll: m-t0627-03653; Page: 8A; Enumeration District: 69-83
17. “33 Nurses Are Assigned,” Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, May 28, 1943, 28.

Prepared by Susan Ruth, PhD, Central New Mexico Community College, sruth2@cnm.edu

Featured Image:

“Serving in Iceland,” Huntingdon Daily News, January 22, 1944, 6.