Nurse Pharfeania F. Butler Oral History

title:

Nurse Pharfeania F. Butler Oral History

creator:

Butler, Pharfeania F. (Jones) (1915 December 20 - )

subject:

Army Nurse Corps

description:

Pharfeania Butler was born on December 20, 1915 in Live Oak, Florida. She was a Red Cross nurse before World War II began, so she enlisted in the Army Nurse Corps in 1941 as the war was in the early stages. Her parents were worried, but she assured them that they were just training for if the United States was brought into the war. From 1941 to 1943, Butler was stationed at Fort Bragg, North Carolina. From there, she was sent overseas and stationed in Liberia, where they treated both American military personnel and Liberian people who needed care. She remained in Liberia for ten months before she and the other nurses stationed there were sent back to the United States after training corpsmen to do at least some nursing themselves in their absence. She was then stationed at Camp Livingston, Louisiana for a few months in 1944 before being sent back overseas, this time to Europe. First, they were assigned to a hospital in Manchester, England, then were sent to the 168th station hospital in Warrington, England. She remembers, while serving stateside, receiving 1500 casualties at their station hospital with a capacity of 750, and being proud of how effectively they treated and got moved out very nearly all 1500. She also says that they initially didn’t have much formal training like boot camp when she first enlisted, only when they were preparing to be sent to Liberia. When they returned from Liberia, all of the nurses were given a 30-day pass to visit friends and family before going to their next station (Camp Livingston for Butler), and she remembers being treated royally by the Red Cross in that time. After her discharge in 1945, she got married and then attended Wayne State University, going to work for the Detroit Visiting Nurses Association after graduating with a degree in public health. He had two children and continued working with VNA and Wayne County Department of Health, and after her kids reached their teens she returned to school and got a masters degree in public health from the University of Michigan. She then got another position in the Wayne County Department of Health as a consultant for Wayne County’s TB and respiratory diseases, then the director of nurses for that same group. She retired after ten years in that position. When Butler was discharged, she had reached the rank of 1st lieutenant, and for her service she was awarded an American Campaign Medal, European-African-Middle Eastern Campaign Medal, and World War II Victory Medal. A transcript of this interview is available.

publisher:

Military Women's Memorial Foundation

contributor:

Marshall, Alyce

date:

2005-01-27

type:

Audio

format:

Cassette

identifier:

136; 2005.136

source:

CLIR - Recordings at Risk

language:

English

relation:

597874

coverage:

World War II (1939-1945) |1941-45

rights:

Unrestricted