Dedicate Living Memorials in Honor of Iowa Nurses Who Died Over Seas
11 White Trees Are Planted This Week - For "Soldiers in White"

Des Moines, May 18 - Eleven beautiful white birch trees are being planted on the capitol extension grounds this week and on Memorial day with impressive services they will be dedicated to the memory of the Iowa girls who died while in the military service as nurses overseas. One of the eleven will be dedicated to Miss Jane DeLano of New York, chief nurse during the war who directed the mobilization of 26,561 nurses.

Iowa girls for whom trees will be planted are:
Marion Crandall of Davenport, the first nurse to die abroad
Mary Wieman [Weiman] of Fairfield
Marie Elsie Hatch, of Edgewood
Maude Holt of Sioux City
Kathleen Kennebeck of Carroll
Dorothy Elizabeth Koellner of Fort Madison
Lorraine Rawson of Burlington
Marie Beeman, Mary Mahoney and Ramona Bates, whose home addresses have not been learned.

The trees will be known as the "Soldiers in White" memorial trees since the nurses who served overseas are so designated. Through Mrs. Jarvis a "Soldier in White" day is observed throughout the United States on the last Sunday in January when especial honor and tribute is paid to the nurses who died overseas.


~source: Cedar Rapids Evening Gazette May 18, 1921