A PASSION FOR LEARNING Alice Byrne, Cedar Community assisted living resident, graduated with a master’s degree in nursing in 1944 from Western Reserve University in Cleveland, Ohio. It was about 60 miles from where she grew up in Canton, Ohio. “I was able to attend college with financial help from the Daughters of the American Revolution and a local women’s group. I felt like the luckiest girl in town,” says Alice. After college graduation, she was working in a university hospital when she saw a local newspaper headline which read “Congress to Draft Nurses.” The military was expecting a lot of casualties from the war in the South Pacific. At the time, Alice said everyone she knew was drafted or enlisting in the service. “My two brothers were drafted, and down my street every house had a flag and star in the window,” says Alice. If Alice enlisted, she would automatically have the rank of second lieutenant, rather than being ranked a private if she were to be drafted. She enlisted, and left for staging in Indiana where she was told she would be assigned as a charge nurse to a Mobile Army Surgical Hospital (MASH) unit. The MASH units served as a fully functional hospital in a combat area. “I was so excited because I would be able to use everything I had learned as a nurse,” says Alice. When she arrived at Fort Knox, Ky. to join a larger unit, the chief nurse reassigned Alice to her unit at the 3,000-patient regional military hospital. She would not be going overseas, but instead, cared for the many war causalities who were triaged in the field, and then brought to the hospital in Kentucky where Alice was stationed. In 1946, when the war was over, the military wanted Alice to stay in six more months, but she was ready to move on in her career and wanted a change. The chaplain at the military
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hospital learned that many civilian hospitals and schools of nursing were in desperate need of qualified people, and he helped to get her out of Fort Knox, and on with her career. “You could get a quick discharge if you were necessary for civilian welfare,” says Alice. She contacted the school of nursing back in her hometown of Canton and returned to teach medical/surgical nursing for one year. Alice was eager to continue her education, and had the benefit of the GI Bill. She wanted to explore other collegelevel courses outside of her nursing degree. She left Ohio for Loyola University of Chicago. Alice attended Loyola part time, taking classes on Shakespeare and metaphysics. She was also working part time at a local hospital. “When you are a poor girl growing up, I was happy to be able to use the GI Bill and take a variety of courses that interested me. I enjoyed studying,” says Alice. While in Chicago, a friend invited her to a social gathering—a night that would change her life forever. There she met Peter Byrne, and the rest was history. She was married to Peter for 49 and a half years, and had four boys.
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