Category Archives: World War 2

November 11, 2025 · 10:01 am

Sister-Veterans of World War II

Come, let us go up to the mountain of the Lord, to the temple of the God of Jacob. He will teach us his ways, so that we may walk in his paths. The law will go out from Zion, the word of the Lord from Jerusalem. He will judge between the nations and will settle disputes for many peoples. They will beat their swords into plowshares and their spears into pruning hooks. Nation will not take up sword against nation, nor will they train for war anymore.

-Isaiah 2:3-4

We would like to take this opportunity to highlight a few Daughters of Charity of this Province who served their country prior to joining the Community.

To clarify, this post will NOT be about the Sister-Veterans of the Civil War, who served during their Community lives.  Nor will it be about the Sister-Veterans of the Spanish-American War, World War I, or World War II who did the same.  This post is merely about four Daughters of Charity who, during their lives before joining the Community, served something greater than themselves in a slightly different way during the Second World War. 

This post is also not meant to disparage or ignore the service of any Daughters of Charity whom we failed to include here.  “Veteran status” is not a search terms that we filter for among the Daughters whose files are in the Archives.  It is more something that we stumbled upon over time.  It also may open the possibility of a part 2 in the future…

So, without further ado:

Sister Karen Baustian

Sister Karen started as an unenlisted electronics tech for the Army Air Corps, the future U.S. Air Force, following her brother into the service.  She then enlisted in the U.S. Women’s Marine Corps in 1943, serving for 27 months as a Radio Tech.  She began her service directing communications on the Paris Island Marine Corp base in South Carolina before volunteering for active service.  This took her to Hawaii, where she repaired equipment for use in the Pacific Theater of the War.

After her honorable discharge in 1945, Sister Karen remained in the Marine Corp. Reserves until 1949.  Looking to continue in her line of work after the War in Minneapolis, she was rejected from numerous jobs for being a woman.  She instead utilized the GI Bill to go to school for broadcast journalism and for the next eight years worked in radio broadcasting in the rural parts of the state.  As she traveled around the state in the 1950s, she began attending Bible study and growing in her own faith, when a priest directed her to the Daughters of Charity.

Photo of Sister Karen Baustian's funeral clipped from provincial newsletter, 1992 with full military honors
Picture and notice from Sister Karen’s funeral in the Provincial newsletter, 1992

Sister Marguerite Eavey

Seeing that she had no brothers to represent her family in the War effort, Sister Marguerite volunteered at age 20 for the Women Accepted for Volunteer Emergency Service (or the WAVES Program).  Her service as a Pharmacist’s Mate, 1st Class, lasted from 1943 to 1945 and occurred at the Naval hospitals in Philadelphia and Norfolk, Virginia.  She translated this service into attending the Worcester School of Business and becoming a secretary for the Department of the Interior after the War ended. 

At age 30, she returned to her hometown of Martinsburg, West Virginia, where she went to school under the Daughters and applied to enter the Community.

Headshot of Sister Marguerite Eavey in coiffe habit

Sister Regina Lindner

Another WAVES veteran, Sr. Regina Lindner actually began her Seminary as a Daughter of Charity, stopped to serve in 1941, and returned to the Community later.  She also achieved the rank of Pharmacist’s Mate, 1st class, serving in Naval hospitals in California.  Four more of her siblings remained with the Daughters of Charity, while Sister Regina returned home after the War to care for their ailing mother.  In 1947, she returned to the Community to complete Seminary.   

Sister Regina Lindner in WAVES uniform, circa 1943

Sister Margaret Albert Scholl

Sr. Margaret Albert began her career in the U.S. Public Health Service, but very quickly enlisted in the U.S. Coast Guard Medics in 1944.  The Coast Guard at this time was patrolling the Atlantic and guarding the homefront in the event of a possible invasion of the East Coast.  At the same time, based at the U.S. Coast Guard Academy in New London, Connecticut, she trained other paramedics for service in distant theaters of the War.  Her service lasted from 1944 to 1951, and she joined the Daughters of Charity immediately thereafter.

Sister Margaret Albert Schroll receiving award from U.S. Coast Guard Officer on deck of the 'USCGC Eagle' in 1976
Receiving a gift from USCGC Eagle in 1976

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September 3, 2020 · 4:21 pm

The End of World War II

August 2020 marked 75 years since the end of the Second World War, the entry of the world into the atomic age with the bombing of Hiroshima and Nagasaki, and the start of the Nuremburg trials to confront the horrors of the Holocaust.

While the American Daughters of Charity were not as active in nursing on the front as they were during the First World War, they, like everyone else, were still attuned to events happening in the war.  On August 15, 1945, the Daughters in Emmitsburg, Maryland held a feast and high Mass with the announcement of the surrender of the final Axis power.  On August 18, another Mass at Holy Hour gave thanks for the end of the conflict. Portions of the text of Father Francis Dodd’s Mass survives.

Provincial Annals, 1945, p. 52-53, Emmitsburg, MD – St. Joseph’s Provincial House Collection, RG 11-3-2, Daughters of Charity Archives, Province of St. Louise, Emmitsburg, MD

Back in 1943, in occupied Paris, Superioress General Laura Decq was taken prisoner and held for approximately a month.  Although Mother Decq was released, four Daughters were forced to stay behind until American troops liberated the region.  In addition to this crisis, much of the international Community had no communication with the Motherhouse at 140 Rue du Bac in Paris during the war, due to the German occupation of Paris. News that did arrive was chaotic and relayed through whispered networks.  The silence lasted for five years in the United States, until it was finally broken with a letter dated April 18, 1945 from Father Eduard Robert, CM, Vincentian Director General of the Community. 

Letter from Vincentians in Paris with a grateful addendum written at top:  “Such joy to receive a letter after 5 years war when there was no communication!”  Provincial Annals, 1945, p. 28, RG 11-3-2, Emmitsburg, MD – St. Joseph’s Provincial House Collection, Daughters of Charity Archives, Province of St. Louise, Emmitsburg, MD

Significant accounts of these immediate post-war days come from the correspondence of Sister Madeleine Morris, an American Daughter from the St. Louis, Missouri Province.  In 1945, she traveled to the Motherhouse to begin her service as the Secretary for all English-speaking provinces.  Her letter of June 12, 1945, written shortly after her arrival, contains the most comprehensive summary of France’s attempts rebuild.

Sister Madeleine Morris to Sister Caroline Collins, June 12, 1945, RG 7-5-4, Military Service – World War II, Box 1, Folder 2, Daughters of Charity Archives, Province of St. Louise, Emmitsburg, MD

She describes meeting Mother Decq and learning of her experience in prison

Sister Madeleine Morris to Sister Caroline Collins, June 12, 1945, RG 7-5-4, Military Service – World War II Collection, Box 1, Folder 2, Daughters of Charity Archives, Province of St. Louise, Emmitsburg, MD

* Sister Helene Studler, aka Sister Elaine, was a known supplier of resistance fighters and assisted prisoners in escapes from the Gestapo.  For more information see https://via.library.depaul.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1072&context=vhj

Perhaps most importantly, she begins to describe the next steps.  For even though the war took six years, winning battles was the easy part.  The next, more difficult steps were to put the pieces of life back together.

Sister Madeleine Morris to Sister Caroline Collins, June 12, 1945, RG 7-5-4, Military Service – World War II Collection, Box 1, Folder 2, Daughters of Charity Archives, Province of St. Louise, Emmitsburg, MD

Attached to this letter is a commendation from Sister Isabel Toohey, Visitatrix of the Province in Emmitsburg, to encourage even more gathering of aid packages and how to send them. 

Sister Madeleine Morris to Sister Caroline Collins, June 12, 1945, RG 7-5-4, Military Service – World War II Collection, Box 1, Folder 2, Daughters of Charity Archives, Province of St. Louise, Emmitsburg, MD

Sister Isabel’s request for aid was not the first of its kind.  Father Patrick O’Boyle, director of the War Relief Services wrote to Sister Madeleine on May 1, before the war had even ended, to inform her of 200 tons of food and 6,500 cans of dried milk on its way to Paris for distribution.

Provincial Annals, 1945, p. 8, Emmitsburg, MD – St. Joseph’s Provincial House Collection, RG 11-3-2, Daughters of Charity Archives, Province of St. Louise, Emmitsburg, MD

Schools and hospitals joined in the Daughters’ contribution.

The Valley Echo, November 20, 1945, p. 4, RG 11-1 VAL, Emmitsburg, MD – St. Joseph’s College Collection, Daughters of Charity Archives, Province of St. Louise, Emmitsburg, MD
The Star, April 1945, p. 5, RG 11-2-6-1, Carville, LA National Hansen’s Disease Center Collection,
Box 17, Folder 6, Daughters of Charity Archives, Province of St. Louise, Emmitsburg, MD

Sister Madeleine wrote to Sister Isabel Toohey in July, her last surviving letter to the United States before her sudden death 11 days later on July 23.

Sister Madeleine Morris to Sister Isabel Toohey, July 12, 1945, RG 7-5-4, Military Service – World War II Collection, Box 1, Folder 2, Daughters of Charity Archives, Province of St. Louise, Emmitsburg, MD

As this war and the memories of it fade, let us remember its lessons and those who served, such as Sister Helene Studler or Sister Agnes Walsh, the British Daughter recognized as a Righteous Among the Nations (https://righteous.yadvashem.org/?search=Agnes%20walsh&searchType=righteous_only&language=en&itemId=4042610&ind=1)

Let us continue to remember the refugees of all wars and catastrophes, just as the Daughters of Beirut have recently experienced, or as the Holy Family once did thousands of years ago as refugees of human conflict.

And then let us ask, the ultimate question which the Vincentian charism teaches us, What must be done?

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July 26, 2019 · 10:40 am

Daughters of Charity in the Pacific Theater: World War II

Sisters Clara Groell, Eugenia Biggs, and Catherine O’Neill outside barracks, Aug. 1945. These three sisters were missioned in China and ended up serving as U.S. Army nurses in the Pacific theater of World War II.

Sisters Clara Groell, Eugenia Biggs, and Catherine O’Neill outside barracks, Aug. 1945. These three sisters were missioned in China and ended up serving as U.S. Army nurses in the Pacific theater of World War II.

For the American Daughters of Charity on mission in China during the Sino-Japanese War – a conflict known as the Second Sino-Japanese war, which had once again ignited in 1937 between the Republic of China and the Empire of Japan – the war between these two countries merged into the great conflict of World War II. The Daughters were missioned at “St. Margaret’s House, Kanhsien Kiangsi, Free China,” located in the southern region of the country.

By 1941, when writing to their provincial house in Emmitsburg, Md. their letters with the address stamped on the stationery signaled the dangerous situation they now found themselves in as the war continued to creep southward. More and more, letters home recounted another night spent in anticipation of an air raid. Finally, on June 27th, 1944, Sr. Vincent Louise DeLude informed her Visitatrix at the Central House in Emmitsburg that they had been forced to flee.

Travel outside the country was still dangerous, so the Sisters turned inward, further into the country. They took up residence with the U.S. Army in Kunming, which was building airfields that could supply Allied troops. The chief nurse on base there, it turned out, was even a graduate of the Daughters’ nursing school at Charity Hospital in New Orleans!

Under the auspices of Rev. Joseph McNamara, Assistant Theatre Chaplain, the Daughters were able to once again write to Emmitsburg; but this time, the letters were written requesting necessities unobtainable for the past several years. Sisters Emily Kolb and Catherine O’Neill were both sent new pairs of glasses, and each of the Sisters was able to replace shoes that had been worn out since 1941.

Of course, military mail regulations reveal themselves in this exchange below. Sister Vincent Louise wrote: “The Canadians Sisters who left this country at Easter are still waiting for passage in…” before the page is torn to ensure their safe passage out of China.

img432 (2)

September 4, 1945 is the final (surviving) piece of correspondence written on official U.S. military letterhead, as the Sisters prepared to return to civilian hospitals .

In August 2019, we approach the 75th anniversary of the end of the second World War and take time to reflect on the devastating impact it had on the world. And while we pay tribute to all those who served their countries, soldiers and civilians alike, we also pay tribute to the Daughters of Charity missioned in China, who so courageously served those in need of care.

 

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