Mary Catherine (Marshall) Porter

Rank: First Lieutenant

Service: January 04, 1942 - August 11, 1945

Mary Catherine (Marshall) Porter 1918 - 2011 of Connellsville was born in Normalville, Pennsylvania, a daughter of George B. Marshall, MD, and Maude (Lint) Marshall. She was a 1936 graduate of Perry Township High School (now Frazier High School) and a 1940 graduate of West Penn Hospital School of Nursing in Pittsburgh. Her nursing career included serving with the U.S. Army during WWII as a First Lieutenant. After several state-side duty stations she was attached to the volunteer West Penn Hospital medical staff that was assigned to the 58th General

Hospital in England and France. She eventually was a Head Nurse of a Portable Surgical Hospital, the WWII forerunner of the more widely recognized mobile army surgical hospital (MASH) unit. The 58th General Hospital ultimately was situated in Lerouville, France, and treated casualties of the Battle of the Bulge, including German prisoners-of-war. She received the American Campaign Medal, the European-African-Middle Eastern Campaign Medal with two Bronze Stars, and the WWII Victory Medal. On occasion during the course of the war she was able to talk to and see her husband, Captain William S. Porter, and both brothers, Corporal Dale Marshall and Captain Lloyd Q. Marshall, who were all serving in England and France, and at one point she actually cared for her brother Dale as a patient. Her military experience is permanently recorded as a registered veteran at the Women's Memorial at Arlington National Cemetery.

Submitted by daughter:

Judith Catherine (Porter) Browell