Cadet Nurse Betty Rose Mentzer Oral History Side A

title:

Cadet Nurse Betty Rose Mentzer Oral History Side A

creator:

Mentzer, Betty Rose (Shellenberger) (1923 June 5 - )

subject:

USPHS Cadet Nurse Corps

description:

Side 1 of 2. Betty Rose Mentzer (formerly Shellenberger) was born on June 5, 1923 in Altoona, Pennsylvania. Her father, David, worked for the railroad as a mechanic building locomotives, her mother, Helen, was a housewife, and she had one brother and two sisters. Betty Rose grew up during the Great Depression and her parents instilled in her the importance of getting an education, taking college prep course throughout her high school years. Determined to become a nurse ever since she'd had her tonsils taken out at age seven, after graduating high school Betty Rose enrolled as a nursing student at Mercy Hospital in Altoona, which was a Catholic hospital run by nuns and staffed by students. In 1943, during Betty's second year of nurse training, the United States Cadet Act formed the Cadet Nurse Corps and Betty Rose joined. This program allowed Betty Rose to participate since all nursing schools were eligible. Although she didn't finish her training before the war ended and she couldn't officially join the military as a nurse, the program at Mercy Hospital allowed Betty Rose to fulfill her lifelong dream of becoming a civilian nurse. Betty Rose married Chalmers Otto Mentzer and they had two children together: a son in 1947, and a daughter in 1951. Betty Rose reflected that her strict training with the nuns at Mercy Hospital—comparable to military training according to her—gave her confidence she maintained through life. Betty also stated that "the nurses were really the bra burners," they just didn't know it at the time. She stated that partially because of the women who served in World War II, women have broken through barriers to work in positions they had been excluded from, such as lawyers, doctors, and board directors. When World War II ended, Mentzer was a Cadet Nurse and she didn’t receive any military awards. A transcript of this interview is available.

publisher:

Military Women's Memorial Foundation

contributor:

Scott, Kate M.

date:

2006-01-25

type:

Audio

format:

Cassette

identifier:

639; 2006.639

source:

CLIR - Recordings at Risk

language:

English

relation:

353140

coverage:

World War II (1939-1945) | 1943-45

rights:

Unrestricted