Well Done

As a Red Cross nurse in World War I, Elmira Bears (rhymes with cheers) put in months at nightmarish service in France. After the Armistice, she stayed on for seven months as chief nurse for Herbert Hoover's relief commission to Belgium. Back in the U.S., she continued her career until 1925, when she married Homer Wickenden, a social-welfare official.

When World War II began, her memories sent her back into action. In May 1941, Mrs. Wickenden left her home and two daughters in Bronxville, N.Y., to set up the Red Cross Nurse's Aide program in Washington. Five months later, back in New York as executive secretary of the National Nursing Council for War Service, she was working harder and longer than ever before in her life. She had a major share in organizing the U.S. Cadet Nurse Corps, recruiting 179,000 student nurses and mobilizing more than 76,000 professionals for the Army & Navy--in short, assuring the U.S. of its wartime nursing needs.

Last week in Washington, Elmira Wickenden, 57, became the first nurse and the third woman to receive the Medal for Merit,* the highest honor that the nation can bestow on civilians for wartime service. Said she: "This medal was not awarded to me; it was given in recognition of the fine work done by American nurses."

* The others: Mrs. Anna M. Rosenberg of New York, Regional Director of the War Manpower Commission, and Mrs. Mary Shotwell Ingraham of Brooklyn, one of the founders of the U.S.O. and women's adviser to the War Department.

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