Roswell remembers WWI nurse Camille O'Brien
By Elizabeth Nouryeh
via the Cherokee Tribune and Ledger News (GA) web site
A Roswell, GA family's great aunt was honored with a new headstone at Greenwood Cemetery for her service and bravery during World War I as an Army nurse.
William Cawthorne's great aunt, Camille Louise O'Brien was a member of the Emory nursing unit during WWI and was the only Red Cross nurse from Atlanta and the only nurse from the Emory Unit to die in France during the war. O'Brien is recognized as a hero nurse for her exemplary service and dedication to treating her soldiers.
O'Brien was honored on April 18, with a new headstone at her previously unmarked grave. Local funeral home H.M Patterson & Son paid for the entire ceremony, including installing and transporting the headstone and seating arrangements for guests. Emory and Oakland Cemetery also helped with cleaning and transporting a bronze memorial plaque to the ceremony.
"More people need to learn to take care of others and put others before themselves and (her story) is just a prime example of it," local historian Michael Hitt said.
O'Brien was born in 1883 in Barnett, Georgia and was a third generation Irish Catholic. In 1909, O'Brien's mother died and the remaining family moved to Atlanta.
In 1913, O'Brien enrolled in nursing school at St. Joseph's Infirmary in Atlanta. After three years in nursing school, O'Brien graduated in 1916 and worked for around a year at St. Joseph's. With WWI already heightened, O'Brien enlisted in the Army Nurses Corp. From there she was assigned to the Emory Unit and sent to Camp Gordon for around three weeks of training.
Once O'Brien completed training, she was sent to New York with other Red Cross nurses before shipping to Europe. While en route to Wales, O'Brien witnessed three attacks from German U-boats, or "unterseeboots." These submarines were around 214 feet long, carried 35 men and armed with 12 torpedoes.
Read the entire article on the Cherokee Tribune and Ledger News web site.
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