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Information on Mary Chapman, a U.S. Navy nurse, who died as a prisoner of the Japanese in the Philippines during WWII.
1920 - US Census - Berlin Township, Roger Mills, Oklahoma
Household .....................Role .................Sex .....Age Birthplace
Doctor James M Steel ...Head ................Male ....59 ..Arkansas
Emma E Steel ................Wife ..................Female 52 ..Illinois
Magdaline Steel ............Daughter ..........Female 24 ..Illinois
Frances E Steel ..............Daughter ..........Female 16 ..Arkansas
Mary M Chapman ..........Daughter ..........Female 28 ..Arkansas (married)
Mary Frances Chapman Granddaughter Female 6 ....Illinois
Mary M Mayer ................Mother-in-law ..Female 77 ..Prussia Germany
Mary's mother died in 1924 the day before her 11th birthday leaving her with her Steele grandparents to complete her teenage years and school.
1930 - US Census - Sayre, Beckham, Oklahoma
Household ..........Role ...................Sex .....Age Birthplace
James M Steele ..Head ..................Male ....69 ..Arkansas
Emma Steele ......Wife ...................Female 63 ..Illinois
Kathleen Steele ..Daughter ..........Female 36 ..Illinois
Magdeline Steele Daughter ..........Female 34 ..Illinois
Mary F Chapman Granddaughter Female 17 ..Illinois
Note: In 1930 Mary's father was living in Chicago, Illinois with his new wife and Mary's half siblings.
On May 21, 1931 Mary graduated from Sayre High School in Sayre Oklahoma where she was living with her Steele grandparents at 1201 North 4th Street.
Mary was a nurse like her mother and enlisted in the US Navy Nurse Corps in 1936.
1940 - US Census - No record found. -- When Mary left her father's home at 4108 North Central Park Ave., in Chicago, Illinois (a home he would remain in until his death in 1966) is unknown. She was claiming her father's address as her home address in April 1940 but was not listed in her father's home at the time of the census. It is known that Mary left Norfolk, Virginia in April 1940 and arrived at the the Port of Pearl Harbour on May 7, 1940.
Mary was in Hawaii for for a short time and is believed to have reached the Phillipines by the end of 1940 or early 1941.
In November 1941 Mary was one of twelve navy nurses at Canacao Naval Hospital, outside Manila in the Phillipines. On December 10, 1941 the Japanese first shelled the Canacao Naval Hospital in Cavite. The next day the Canacao Naval Hospital was evacuated. Mary with eleven* other navy nurses moved to Sterberg Hospital in Manila. They were assigned by the army to various makeshift medical facilities. *Note: Ann Bernatitus was one of the 12 Navy nurses that was able to evacuee from the Philippine Islands leaving the other 11 left on the island. Mary and Ann had traveled together to reach their assignments in the Philippine Islands in 1940. The list of the 11 Navy Nurses that served with Mary is added near the end of this Bio.
On December 31, 1941 Mary and the other ten remaining navy nurses with other naval medical personnel were at Saint Scolastica Girls School in Manila. On January 2, 1942 the Japanese enter Manila. The eleven navy nurses surrender and Mary begins her 37 months as a POW in WWII. They are held at Saint Scolastica Girls School with patients and other medical personnel.
On March 8, 1942 the eleven navy nurses were taken to Santo Tomas Internment Camp, Manila. On May 14, 1943 the eleven navy nurses move to the newly established internment camp at Los Banos and set up a hospital to care for other POW's.
Chicago Tribune (Chicago, Illinois), Friday, July 10, 1942 pg 6
Reported Missing
MARY FRANCES CHAPMAN
Miss Mary Frances Chapman, 27 years old, is believed to be the first Chicago nurse lost in action in the Philippines. Her parents, Mr. and Mrs. Walter J. Chapman, 4108 North Central Park avenue, said yesterday the navy department had notified them that their daughter has been reported missing.
Miss Chapman was expected home last summer after five years in the Philippines, but she decided to enlist for another year to be near her fiance', William R. Hays, a navy warrant officer. Hays, who was wounded in action, is now in the United States.
Miss Chapman was born in Danville, and took her nurse's training in St. James Hospital, Newark, N. J. For several years she had been stationed in the naval hospital at the Cavite base.
The Sayre Sun, Thursday, January 21, 1943, pg 3
FEMININE ANGLE
MRS. O. B. THOMAS appreciates the Red Cross service that brought the information, Miss Mary Frances Chapman, a former Sayre Girl is a prisoner of the Japanese at Manila. Mrs. Thomas believes in prayer and says if churches should put forth a special effort to win people to Christ rather than to any one certain church. People are not buying as many war bonds as they should. War bonds are certainly important and victory gardens may mean about as much as any ordinary person can do. I work one afternoon every week at the Red Cross room.
On April 6, 1944 a Sayre newspaper published an on unofficial list of the Sayre High School Alumni in the Armed Forces. Mary Chapman was on the list as a Red Cross Nurse, Prisoner of Japs.
Mary remained in the Los Banos internment camp until the eleven navy nurses are liberated in February 1945 by the 11th Airborne Division and the 672nd Amphibian Tractor Battalion just before they were being prepared for a mass execution.
In March 1945 66 in the Army Nurse Corps and the 11 in the Navy Nurse Corps were released from hospitals to travel home and all were promoted one grade level.
Members of the Navy Nurse Corps in service with Mary were:
Note: For further info on those listed below, they have memorials on Find A Grave.
Chief Nurse Laura Mae Cobb, Wichita, Kansas
Bertha R. Evans, Portland, Oregon
Helen C. Gorzelanski, Omaha, Nebraska
Mary Rose Harrington, Elk Point, South Dakota
Margaret "Peg" A. Nash, Wilkes-Barre, Pennsylvania
Goldia "Goldie" A. O'Haver, Hayfield, Minnesota
Eldene E. Paige, Lomita, California
Susie J. Pitcher, Des Moines, Iowa
Dorothy Still , Long Beach, California
Edwina Todd, Pomona, California
Mary and all the the above nurses would become known as the "the sacred eleven" while still serving as nurses to all the POWs.
Ann Bernatitus, Exeter, Pennsylvania Note: Ann is the only one in the group that managed to escape from Manila to Bataan just before Manila fell.
Mary and the 10 others with her received the following ribbons and metals:
Bronze Star
Asiatic-Pacific Theater Medal with two battle stars
Presidential Unit Citation with two oak leaf clusters
American Defense Medal with one battle star
Philippine Defense Ribbon with one battle star
Philippine Liberation Ribbon with one battle star and six hash marks for years of overseas military service
Except for newspaper accounts most of the above service information is based on the 1999 book "We Band of Angels".
Mary was married to William Robert Hays in 1945 or 1946 as she was married when she left the Navy Nurse Corps. Mary's paperwork shows a (medical) retirement date of December 1946 with the rank of Lieutenant Commander.
Baxter Bulletin (Mountain Home, Arkansas), Thursday, December 18, 1969 pg 14
Obituary
Cmdr. Mary Hays,
Retired Navy Nurse
Cmdr. Mary Chapman Hays, 56, former public health nurse in Searcy County, died last Thursday at the U. S. Naval Hospital, Great Lakes, Ill. She was a retired Navy nurse, a veteran of World War II and a member of the Methodist Church.
Survivors include her husband, Cmdr. William R. Hays, USN (Ret.), two brothers and a sister, all in Chicago.
Mrs. Hays resided at Marshall during her public health service in north Arkansas, and assisted local public health personnel with health and nutrition programs. She was a member of the Arkansas Public Health Association, the American Association of Foods and Nutrition and the American Nurses Association.
During her World War II service, she spent more than three years in a Japanese prisoner of war camp. she was awarded two Bronze Stars and a Presidential Unit Citation from the U. S. government, the Philippine Defense Medal and a Presidential Unit Citation from the Philippine government.
Military services were held Saturday at Chicago. A military funeral was conducted yesterday at the Methodist Church of Marshall. Interment was in a Marshall cemetery, under the direction of the Coffman Funeral Home.