World War II History

Defiant black nurse never quit
Nobody hushed Evelyn Decker
By BY KEITH GOLDBERG – Times Herald-Record – June 20, 2008

Nurse Evelyn Decker served in segregated military hospitals during WW II and had to fight for more than 50 years to receive the captain’s bars she earned. She didn’t quit, and she finally got them.

WASHINGTONVILLE, NY — Evelyn Decker’s family buried her in Washingtonville Cemetery last weekend, where her grandfather dug graves over a century ago and where her family first planted roots during colonial times.

It was a steamy Saturday afternoon when she was laid to rest near a large evergreen tree and her older sister’s grave. Decker died just short of her 93rd birthday.

She leaves behind a younger sister, several nieces and nephews, and a place in history.

Evelyn Decker really wanted to be a doctor. But with a father who died young and a mother who, as a hotel cook, had to support four girls, medical school was out of the question. So she left Washingtonville in 1936 for nursing school in Harlem. In 1944, as World War II raged, she joined the U.S. Army.

Decker was black, and segregation split the Army of 1944. She could only work in black hospitals, treating only black soldiers.

President Truman desegregated the armed forces in 1948, but the discrimination didn’t end. Decker’s younger sister, Rachel Galarza, says Decker would tell stories of being forced to work in hospital laundry rooms. Of being pulled over and jailed while stationed in Maryland because a white cop couldn’t believe a black woman was legally wearing a military uniform.

Nobody will ever keep me down, Decker told her sister. I’ll get up and fight.

And when the Korean War broke out, Decker served in a Mobile Army Surgical Hospital unit — known commonly as MASH — one of only a handful of black nurses stationed in Korea. She earned medals for service in both wars.

When a medical condition forced Decker’s discharge in 1952, her papers indicated she had earned the rank of captain. But she never received her commission.

That’s when her next battle began.

Even as she settled into post-military life in Queens, Decker fought for recognition. She became a charter member of the Women In Military Service For America Memorial Foundation, Inc., which built the women’s memorial at Arlington National Cemetery. She got congressmen to write letters on her behalf. And she would tell her stories to anyone who would listen.

“One of her favorite sayings was, ‘Don’t hush me!’” grandniece Tonia Brown says.

It was May 2007 when Decker finally received her captain’s bars, at the VA hospital on Long Island where she spent her final years.

“How many people do you know would fight for over 50 years for something?” grandniece Deborah Williams says.

About two months ago, Evelyn Decker fell into a coma. Doctors pronounced her brain dead and placed her on a ventilator, saying she would be dead within a week.

In a final act of defiance, she lived another 14 days.

Technorati Tags: WWII, WWarII, Women, Nurse, Army, MASH, Black, Funeral

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Author Bio:  World War II researcher and historian working to preserve history and educate future generations. A student of Military History working to author and collect as much data as possible on the WWII time period.