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Bernice Isabel Heath Collection

 Collection
Identifier: WV 0195

Content Description

20 January 2001 oral history transcript; Artifact 1 box contains dogtag; insignia and discharge pins; copy of the History of the 91st Evacuation Hospital Overseas written by Ruth Schwing head nurse, 1945; War Correspondent Broadcast transcript of Iris Carpenter from the 91st Evac Hospital, undated; 91st Research News newsletter, circa 1991; typed "unofficial diary kept by an enlisted man Shorty Reese containing the history of the 91st evac hosp from 1942-45, 2001; newspaper article on Bernice 1944; typewritten History of the 6th Surgical Hospital ; military paperwork 1946 and 1964; and diploma from France of service and assistance in liberation; empty photograph folder.

Dates

  • 1948-1964

Conditions Governing Access

Collection is open for research.

Conditions Governing Use

Copyright is retained by the creators of items in these papers, or their descendants, as stipulated by United States copyright law.

Manuscript collections and archival records may contain materials with sensitive or confidential information. Please see our Sensitive Materials Statement.

Biographical / Historical

Bernice Isabel Heath (1917-2003) of Portsmouth, Ohio, served as a nurse in North Africa, Europe, Japan as a member of the Army Nurse Corps from 1942 to 1946 and 1948 to 1964.

Bernice Isabel Heath was born on 1 December 1917 in Richmondale, Ohio, to Herbert H. and Beatrice Armsey Heath, a steel worker and and a housewife. Heath graduated from Portsmouth High School in Portsmouth, Ohio, in 1935 and worked in a department store for two years. She attended nursing school at Bethesda Hospital in Cincinnati, Ohio, from 1938 to 1941, and did general duty nursing for the next year.

Heath joined the Army Nurse Corps in September 1942 and was stationed at Fort Knox, Kentucky, for three months before being shipped overseas with the 91st Evacuation Hospital. From December 1942 to November 1943, Heath served in Casablanca and Port Lyautey, Morocco; Mostaganem, Algiers; Bizerte, Tunisia; and Palermo, Sicily. In November 1943, Heath was transferred to Falfield, England, in preparation for the invasion of Normandy, and on 10 June 1944, her unit arrived on Utah Beach. Heath and the 91st Evac Hospital then followed the battlefronts through France and into Holland for the Battle of the Bulge. They then moved deep into Germany and were stationed at Wiepke on V-E Day in May 1945.

After a brief stint in Stuttgart, Heath returned to the United States in November 1945 and was discharged from the service on 9 February 1946. Heath worked as a nurse in Ohio and Arizona for two years, then reenlisted in the Army Nurse Corps on 22 March 1948. After a few months at Percy Jones Army Hospital in Battle Creek, Michigan, she volunteered for overseas duty and was assigned to the 130th Station Hospital in Heidelberg, Germany.

In 1952 Heath was transferred to Camp Atterbury, Indiana, and in 1955 she was sent to Fort Riley, Kansas. Heath then attended nursing administration school at Brooke Army Medical Center at Fort Sam Houston, Texas. Following that she spent several years at Fort Knox and in the early 1960s served at Camp Zama in Japan.

Heath retired from Fort Knox in 1964 after twenty-two years of service. After her retirement, Heath continued to work part-time as a pediatric and Emergency room nurse in Portsmouth. In 1975 she moved to Fayetteville, North Carolina, where she did volunteer office work at the local Cancer Society. Bernice Heath died on 19 September 2003.

Extent

0.21 Linear Feet (3 folders, WVHP General artifact box 1)

Language of Materials

English

Metadata Rights Declarations

  • License: This record is made available under an Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International Creative Commons license.

Condition Description

The condition is good.

Offensive Language Statement

The UNC Greensboro University Libraries collects, preserves, and makes accessible unique and historical materials for learning and research. The nature of historical materials is such that some material may represent positions, norms, and values that are offensive and objectionable. These materials represent the opinions and actions of their creators. By providing access to these records in our reading room and through our digital collections, we recognize that archives and rare books can play a vital role in holding those creators accountable and in helping us learn from the past.

Our finding aids and other collection descriptions may occasionally re-use language provided by creators or former holders of the materials, but we strive to place outdated or offensive terminology in context. That said, we recognize that we may not always make the right decision and welcome feedback from all sources so we can learn and adjust our practices. Please contact us at scua@uncg.edu if you encounter problematic language in our finding aids or other collection description. We will review the language and, as appropriate, update it in a way that balances preservation of the original context with our ongoing commitment to describing materials with respectful and inclusive language.

Processing Information

Processed by Matthew McCarthy.

Title
Bernice Isabel Heath Collection
Status
Completed
Author
Matthew McCarthy
Date
2022 October
Description rules
Describing Archives: A Content Standard
Language of description
English
Script of description
Latin
Language of description note
eng

Repository Details

Part of the Martha Blakeney Hodges Special Collections and University Archives Repository

Contact:
P.O. Box 26170
320 College Ave.
Greensboro NC 27402-6170 US
336-334-5246