© Mary T. Sarnecky
Margaret Harper was born on 23 July
1911 and raised in her birthplace, Potomac, Illinois. As
a young woman, Harper enjoyed an outdoor life and
sporting activities. The superintendent of her training
school noted that during the course of her nurse's
training Harper was accidentally shot while hunting. In
addition, Harper revealed that horseback riding was a
life long avocation. The young Harper attended college
for two years and then entered the Evanston General
Hospital School of Nursing, graduating in 1934. In the
seven year period before she joined the Army Nurse Corps,
she worked as a superintendent of nurses at Chicago
Memorial Hospital in Illinois and at Murry Hospital in
Butte, Montana.1
Harper's military nursing career began as a general
duty nurse at Fort Lewis, Washington, in 1941 just before
the outbreak of war. Her next assignment was in the South
Pacific. There she served as chief nurse of the 155th
Station Hospital in Australia and as advance base chief
nurse in New Guinea.2 In 1944, Harper was
assigned for a short while at Percy Jones Army Hospital
in Battle Creek, Michigan. She then joined the 123d
Evacuation Hospital as chief nurse at Camp Rucker,
Alabama, in 1945 and accompanied the unit to the European
Theater. She subsequently served as chief nurse of the
59th Field Hospital and the 120th Station Hospital in
Europe. After World War II, Harper attended Teachers'
College, Columbia University and earned a bachelor of
science degree in nursing education. Following her
academic assignment, Harper put her new knowledge to use
writing and editing extension courses at the Medical
Field Service School, Fort Sam Houston, Texas. In 1949,
she transferred to the Army hospital at Fort Sill,
Oklahoma, where she served as chief nurse for two years.
In 1951, she became chief nurse of First Army in New York
and followed that assignment with another stint at
Columbia University during which she earned a master's
degree in nursing service administration in 1953. Harper
then transferred to Valley Forge General Hospital in
Phoenixville, Pennsylvania, where she held several
supervisory positions. Her tenure there culminated in
assignment as Nursing Service Personnel Coordinator,
presumably a position synonymous with that of chief
nurse. In 1955, Harper became the assistant chief of the
corps under Colonel Inez Haynes and followed that
assignment with her final position as chief of the Army
Nurse Corps. She served as chief from 1 September 1959
until 31 August 1963.
By all accounts, Harper's resolute leadership style
featured an intriguing blend of humor and candor. One
co-worker described her as having "a real
down-to-earth philosophy."3 An example of
her unique personal qualities can be found in a letter
she wrote to a chief nurse at Fort Hood, Texas, informing
her post factum of her selection for a new assignment to
Fort Belvoir, Virginia. After delivering her news, Harper
explained:
. . . you told me long ago that you would accept any
assignment that I asked you to make. . . .
I hope our plans will make you happy, but in face of
our requirements, as projected, the Military District of
Washington is the assignment in which we feel you can be
best utilized at this time. In other words, I am not
giving you a choice but if you have any strange
justifiable objection, please let me know and I will
attempt to give your objection due consideration. . . . 4
After her retirement in 1963, Harper returned to
Illinois; later she moved to the state of Colorado. Still
later, she settled in the Army Retirement Community in
San Antonio, Texas, where she died on 13 December 2000
after a long period of declining health.5
- Elizabeth W. Odell,
superintendent, who completed form-- "United
States Army Nurse Corps, Certificate from School
of Nursing," 19 July 1941; "DA Form
66B," Margaret Harper; both in ANC Archives,
U.S. Army Center of Military History, Washington,
D.C.
- While on duty in New Guinea,
Harper always carried a personal handgun and
drove her own jeep. She was a woman in advance of
her times. Interview with Colonel Mary Bateman
Connell, 23 January 1996 at Fort Myer, Virginia.
- Florence Oblensky, "Eleven
Women--And the Army Nurse," The Retired
Officer 19 (January-February 1963): 32-33.
- Margaret Harper to Robena C.
Anderson, 6 April 1961, typewritten letter, ANC
Archives, U.S. Army Center of Military History,
Washington, D.C.
- "In Memoriam," The
Connection, Retired Army Nurse Corps Association
26 (March 2001): 2.