IN MEMORIAM

Alberta Bowes, 91; Bassett’s Nursing Director

Treated Dachau Survivors During World War II

COOPERSTOWN – Alberta Anna Bowes, retired director of nursing at Bassett Hospital who as an Army nurse during World War II  treated Dachau’s survivors, died Monday afternoon, June 16, 2014, at Bassett.  She was 91.

On Oct. 2, 1944, Alberta joined the Army as a second lieutenant, serving her country during World War II as a general duty nurse in the Army Nurse Corps 25th Hospital Train.

Assigned to the European Theater of Operations in December 1944, she shipped out to Cherbourg, France, from Liverpool, England in January 1945.  She was assigned to Hospital Train No. 19 which carried wounded from battle areas in France to hospital ships and rehabilitation centers in southern France.   She also traveled throughout Germany, Belgium and The Netherlands, treating over 320 patients, including GIs, POWs, repatriated Allied Military personnel, as well as enemy POWs and children released from labor camps.

The week after the concentration camp at Dachau was liberated, her unit visited the camp and treated survivors.  While there she saw the ovens (some of which contained half cremated remains), the gas chambers and the laboratories where human experiments were carried out.

In December 1945 she was reassigned from the hospital train to the American Hospital in Paris, France.  On April 6, 1946, she was honorably discharged with the rank of first lieutenant and received two Battle Stars for the Battle of Ardennes (the Battle of the Bulge) and the Battle of the Rhineland.

Born July 21, 1922, at Brady Maternity Hospital in Albany, she was the daughter of Thomas C. and Margaret (Dilts) Bowes.  At 6 months, Alberta moved from Albany to Oneonta with her family.

She attended St. Mary’s Catholic School in Oneonta and graduated from Oneonta High School, Class of 1938.  In 1939, she entered St. Joseph’s Hospital College of Nursing in Syracuse, graduating in May of 1943.  In September of that same year she was licensed as a registered nurse joined St. Joseph’s Hospital as a staff nurse.  Then from January until October of 1944 she was a staff nurse at Fox Hospital.

Back in the States after World War II, Alberta attended the College of St. Teresa in Winona, Minn., graduating with honors in 1948 with a B.Sc. in nursing education.  In September, she joined the faculty at Hartwick College as an instructor in the Nursing Department.

In 1954 she left Hartwick College and moved to Detroit, Mich., where she attended Wayne State University on a graduate teaching fellowship and received her master’s in nursing education in June 1956.  In July, she joined Bassett Hospital’s Nursing Administration Department.

In the mid-1970s, she conducted the feasibility study and developed SUNY Delhi’s associate degree program in nursing.   In October 1972, she represented Bassett at the International Medical Education Conference in The Hague, Netherlands.   After many years as director of nursing, she retired on July 30, 1982.

A passionate explorer, Alberta traveled extensively throughout the world, including visits to Russia, Norway, Sweden, Denmark, England, Scotland, Ireland, Wales, Austria, the Virgin Islands, the Bahamas, Alaska, Nova Scotia, Iceland, Netherlands, Switzerland, France, Germany, Canada and Mexico, and experienced passage through the Panama Canal.  She also visited the Holy Land several times while her brother was there working for his company, Pratt & Whitney Aircraft Corp. from 1973 through 1976.

A member of St. Mary’s “Our Lady of the Lake” Roman Catholic Church, Alberta was also a life member of Clark F. Simmons American Legion Post No. 579 and Sgt. Walter P. Eggleston Veterans of Foreign Wars Post No. 7128 in Cooperstown.  She was also a member of the alumni associations of Oneonta High School, St. Joseph’s Hospital College of Nursing, the College of St. Teresa and Wayne State University, District 15 of New York State Nurses’ Association (part of the American Nurses’ Association), Sigma Theta Tau International Honor Society of Nursing, the American Region of Women in the Military, AARP, Elderhostel, Center for Continuing Adult Learning, Prime Time exercise group at Clark Sports Center, Cornell Cooperative Extension and the 4-H, serving as their money manager for several years at the Cooperstown office, Policy Committee for At Home Care in Oneonta and the Board of Directors of Catholic Charities of Delaware and Otsego Counties.

Since August 2004, she lived at the Clara Welch Thanksgiving Home.

Alberta is survived by her beloved brother, William Morris Bowes of Cooperstown, and several cousins.

Calling hours begin at 10 a.m. Friday, June 20, in St. Mary’s sanctuary.  The funeral mass begins at 11, with Father John P. Rosson, pastor, officiating.

Immediately following, military honors will be accorded outside the church by members of the Cooperstown VFW and Legion Posts and the state Military Forces Honor Guard.

Burial will follow at Mount Calvary Cemetery in Emmons, where Alberta will be laid to rest near her parents.

Arrangements are entrusted to Connell, Dow & Deysenroth Funeral Home.