A life of service: Retired nurse recognized for Cadet Nurse Corps training

CLINTON, Iowa – The “Greatest Generation” is ascribed to Americans who grew up during the Great Depression and who fought for or supported the United States during World War II.

Every American had to step up to meet the challenges of the times and help with military and civilian needs as the war raged on from 1939-1945.

One of those Americans is Mary Voss, 95, formerly of Morrison, Albany and Fulton, who now lives at Bickford of Clinton, an assisted care facility in Clinton, Iowa.

On April 1, she was joined by her sons Tom and Bob VanZuiden, a few Bickford nurses, and friend Don Hall, who was behind an effort to recognize her for serv

ice as a nursing cadet in the 1940s.

The United States Cadet Nurse Corps existed from July 1, 1943 to Dec. 31, 1948,and was administered by the Public Health Administration. Its primary purpose was to help alleviate the nursing shortage caused by hospital doctors and nurses going overseas, or by women staying home with children while their husbands were away fighting.

During that time, more than 120,000 women went through the rigorous training. They then were assigned to a civilian or military hospital or other public health agency for 6 months.

Voss first heard of the CNC in high school, while reading newspapers and seeing ads to join. With the promise of a free education, and because she already had experience as a nurse’s aide at Morrison’s then-15-bed hospital, she signed up after graduating in 1945.

“It didn’t cost anything, but you paid the price,” she said of her CNC experience.

Voss went to West Suburban Hospital in Oak Park for 3 years of training, followed by 6 months of psychiatric training in Springfield, all “under the hand of the government,” she said.

She recalled the experience as a time of constant training, school, studying, and sleeping. “It was hard work and there was no such thing as days off,” she said.

By the time she started her last class, the war was over, but still she and two other cadets were sent to Fort Defiance, Arizona, where they spent their 6 months of active service on an Indian reservation.

The nurses spent their days assisting on the reservation, where the residents didn’t speak English, visiting trading posts and hiking the Arizona mountains on their days off.

After finishing their service, Voss and her friends went adventuring on the West Coast, visiting the Catalina Islands, Alcatraz, and other tourist destinations. She still has her suitcase covered with her travel destination stickers.

They eventually took the “troop train” back to Chicago. Voss headed home to Morrison where a job was waiting for her at Morrison Hospital. She was charge nurse and assisted with surgeries, delivering babies, and even making house calls with the doctors.

“They were desperate for help,” she said.

She soon married Maynard VanZuiden; they moved to a farm in rural Albany and had sons Bob and Tom, which left Mary milking cows with a toddler and infant in tow.

Maynard, the “love of her life,” died of polio on Aug. 21, 1954, leaving her with two young boys and a farm to maintain. The family moved back to Fulton, and she later married Joe Voss.

She also returned to nursing, working as an RN at the former Jane Lamb and now Mercy Hospital in Clinton, as well as a private duty nurse, a school nurse, and eventually director of nursing at Harbor Crest Home in Fulton.

She also joined the first EMT department in Fulton, answering the first 911 call placed in Whiteside County. She spent 15 years with Fulton Ambulance and won the first state EMT award, which is on display in her room.

Voss retired in 1994. The Bickford nurses joked that if they could clone her for nursing help, they would. She smiled when noting that the advent of computers in the medical industry is what really inspired her to leave when she did. She preferred her paper and pen methods.

Walking across the stage at West Oak to “get pinned” in 1948 was a proud milestone, Voss said, and she still has her first all-white nurse uniform and cap from Mercy Hospital, emblazoned with its insignia.

Vopss credits her grandson, Dennis VanZuiden, for bringing a renewed interest in her CNC days. He brought her two books, “Your Country Needs You: Cadet Nurses of World War II,” by Thelma Robinson and “The United States Cadet Nurse Corps [1943-1948] and other Federal nurse training programs” by the United States Public Health Service.

After reading them, she shared her nursing experiences with her neighbors, who were behind the effort to recognize her all these years later.

Don and Lilly Hall moved to Grandview Condos in Fulton in 2017, where Voss was their neighbor for a couple of years.

Lilly was an X-ray technician at Mercy Hospital and knew Voss from the ambulance admissions. The couple would bring Voss her mail and help with tasks, and eventually she told them of her nurse cadet history.

Don hadn’t heard of the program but once he learned more, he wanted to recognize Voss, so he contacted state Rep. Tony McCombie, R-Savanna.

In recognition of her efforts, Voss was presented with a certificate Friday honoring her service as a nursing cadet, sent by McCombie and signed by Speaker of the House Emanuel “Chris” Welch and Clerk of the House John Hollman.

It thanks Voss for her “service at that time of need,” and will be added to her nursing collection display.

“She’s an amazing lady with a story that only she could tell,” Don Hall said. “It was a lot of sacrifice on their generation’s part.

“She helped the country during a critical time and gave her service to the Unites States as a nurse.”