Quincy's Shirley Harrow shined a spotlight on Massachusetts WW II Cadet Nurses

QUINCY – Shirley Caswell Harrow, a nurse who, in her 70s, started a campaign to honor the nation's cadet nurses from World War II, died peacefully at her home at age 91 on Feb. 4.

“The cadet nurses pledged to serve their country for the duration of the war, staffed the nation’s hospitals and prevented the collapse of our health care system,” Harrow said in 2009 when she began presenting their stories.

“I have made a lot of new friends, done things I never considered doing, like working on a film, and I feel very privileged to get to talk to these women."

Her daughter Kit Curcio said Harrow remained proud to the end of her work bringing recognition to the student nurses who had worked in the nation's civilian hospitals during wartime and then, after the war's end, were sent home with little recognition. Many went on to have long careers in health care, some in public health.

It all started at Hanover Town Hall

A passionate, playful woman with a dramatic flair and strong sense of mission, Harrow began her efforts to shine a spotlight on the cadet nurses with a program she presented at Hanover Town Hall in April 2009. By then, many of the nurses were in their mid to late 80s.

"It touched something in me, and I dove into it," she said then.

She organized and publicized the event. More than 100 people, including 15 former U.S. Cadet Nurse Corps members from across the South Shore, filled a town hall hearing room.

The nurses there had served between 1943 to 1946 and some brought WW II photos, news and magazine clippings and other mementoes to show one another. They were delighted to share and compare their experiences.

Her original goal, to help gain federal veterans' status for all cadet nurses, did not happen, but she brought many of the former nurses together with her events. For several years she arranged for cadet nurse luncheons at Marina Place in Quincy.

They shared stories, news clippings, wartime photos

What Harrow started caught on in other areas of the state.

The nurses who attended the hearing and luncheons, some with their adult children and grandchildren, spoke gratefully about the chance to reunite and compare their wartime and later career experiences. Some of their sons and daughters described seeing a new sense of purpose and pride in their mothers.

Harrow graduated from Mount Sinai School of Nursing in 1953. She had admired the cadet nurses in civilian hospitals when she was young, but by the time she would have been old enough to join the Cadet Nurse Corps, the war had ended and the Corps was disbanded. She had several different nursing positions and ended her career at the Harvard Nurses Health Study in Boston.

In 2010, Harrow brought her campaign to Brockton, speaking at the Council on Aging.

In 2013, she spoke at one of several annual luncheons for former Cadet Nurses she arranged for at Atria Marina Place in Quincy. That luncheon brought together former cadet nurses from 12 Massachusetts hospitals, two hospitals in New Jersey and one in Rhode Island.

Gov. Charlie Baker had issued a proclamation declaring July 1 as U.S. Cadet Nurses Day in the state. U.S. Sen. Elizabeth Warren also sent a personal citation.

Two local nurses, Betty Beecher, now 99, of Weymouth, and the late Nancy Randall, of Weymouth, joined Harrow in her campaign. Both became active in reaching out to build public awareness and document the nurses' history. Beecher and Harrow traveled into Boston University to do research on the state's cadet nurse records, in effect rediscovering them.

Young student nurses rose to the wartime occasion

During WWII, when most of the nation's trained nurses went off to serve in military hospitals, many overseas, the younger student nurses who joined the Corps took on extra responsibilities in the home front hospitals. At the same time, they accelerated their studies so they could graduate and fill jobs.

About 124,000 women graduated from the corps between 1943 and 1948. Of all races and ethnic backgrounds, they were part of the U.S. Public Health Service and provided 80 percent of the nursing care in the country, in civilian and military hospitals. In Massachusetts, 57 hospitals used cadet nurses and 12 hospital schools of nursing trained them.

M. J. Ekstrand, of Weymouth, described how the corps was a blessing for young women who didn’t have money for college; the student nurses were paid for nursing school expenses plus $15 a month.

“My RN later became a passport to a life of world travel as a ship’s nurse,” Ekstrand said. She was later a nurse aboard the United States Army transport ship Gen. Harry Taylor, which in 1949-1950 carried displaced European people to America.

The nurses also described an era when the hands-on bedside manner was much more emphasized in nursing.

A plaque hangs in Nurses Hall at the State House

In July 2020, due to the efforts of Barbara Poremba, professor emeritus at Salem State College, and North Shore legislators, Gov. Charlie Baker signed legislation giving the nation's first formal state recognition of the U.S. Cadet Nurses. The law commemorated the 9,000 cadet nurses in Massachusetts who had served.

Because of the new law, a plaque arranged for by Poremba was permanently hung in Nurses Hall at the State House in recognition of the cadet nurses.

In earlier interviews, Harrow said that she discovered her mission at just the right time in her life. After a busy career, and as someone who had always taken on different causes, she needed an activity that came from her heart.

In her obituary, her family requested that in lieu of donations, "just do something nice for a stranger and make the world a better place – Shirley would."

Do you remember Johnnie The Tailor in Quincy?

Liliana "Lilia" DeVincentis, who was born in Italy and came to this country after WWII with her husband, John DeVincentis, who opened Johnnie the Tailor shop on Revere Road in downtown Quincy. He died in 1999 at age 78; Lilia turned 100 on Feb. 16.

The couple lived in Quincy for 75 years and had three children, Linda, Guy and Sandra. Lilia is now in an assisted living center in Connecticut, near her daughter, Linda Brodsky, who said the tailor shop was "a mainstay in the center of town" for 35 years. Lilia has many fond memories of her Quincy days and shopping at Filene's Basement in Boston.

For her family, including six grandchildren, Lilia "provided a warm, loving atmosphere and delicious Italian favorites always ready to enjoy. Lilia is a testament to the strength of the human spirit and a life well lived," Brodsky said.

Congratulations and all best wishes to Lilia DeVincentis!

Reach Sue Scheible at sscheible@patriotledger.com.

This article originally appeared on The Patriot Ledger: Quincy's Shirley Harrow dies at 91; championed WW II U.S. Cadet Nurses