Butler, Viola Wegener

Description

Viola A. Butler

Viola A. Wegener was born in Newark, New Jersey September 24, 1903 to Ellen Walton and Frederick W Wegener. In Rye her family lived at Highland Hall 131 Purchase St.

Viola was married September 7, 1923 in Manhattan to Edwin Stewart Butler. She was the 1930 class president of the United Hospital School of Nursing.

Afterward, for a number of years she was a private duty nurse at the hospital. Her home at the time was at Highland Hall, Rye.

Viola enlisted and served in the US Army during World War II. She volunteered to enter the Army in January,1945 in an attempt to stem what had been declared a national shortage.

More than 59,000 U.S. Army Nurse Corps (ANC) members served globally during WWII, growing from under 1,000 in 1941 to over 57,000 by 1945. These women served in every theater, operating near front lines in field hospitals, on hospital ships, and planes, providing critical care, anesthesia, and, in 1944, landing shortly after D-Day.

After the war, she returned to Rye and she continued as a registered nurse. In 1970 Viola and her husband Stewart retired to St. Petersburg, Florida. After her husbands death in 1984 Viola returned home.

Viola A. Wegener Butler passed away November 6, 2002 in Rye, NY

BUTLER, E. STEWART, 82, of 7712 39th Ave. N, died Saturday (Nov. 10, 1984). Born in Meriden, Conn., he came here in 1970 from Rye, N.Y. and was a retired production clerk for R.B.W., Port Chester, N.Y.

He was a member of Garden Crest Presbyterian Church, St. Petersburg, a member of a Masonic Lodge, Port Chester, Knights Templar, White Plains, N.Y., and Egypt Temple Shrine, Tampa.