[Congressional Record Volume 164, Number 51 (Friday, March 23, 2018)]
[Extensions of Remarks]
[Page E365]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




       TRIBUTE TO 98-YEAR-OLD VETERAN VIRGINIA HENDERSON GRANGER

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                            HON. STEVE COHEN

                              of tennessee

                    in the house of representatives

                         Friday, March 23, 2018

  Mr. COHEN. Mr. Speaker, I rise today to pay special tribute to my 
Memphis constituent Virginia Henderson Granger, a veteran overseas U.S. 
Army nurse during World War II, who turned 98 last month. Mrs. Granger 
was born on February 21, 1920, in Johnson City, Illinois. She graduated 
from West Frankfort Community High School in 1937 and went to nursing 
school at Christian Welfare Hospital in East St. Louis, Illinois, 
earning her R.N. in 1942. Later, after her service in the Army, Mrs. 
Granger went to Washington University in St. Louis, Missouri, and 
graduated in 1952 with a Bachelor of Science Degree in Nursing.
  Mrs. Granger volunteered for the Army Nurse Corps in 1943 and was 
commissioned a Second Lieutenant. At Camp McCoy, Wisconsin, Mrs. 
Granger received her basic training and then worked at the Station 
Hospital for six weeks while awaiting further orders.
  She traveled by troop train to Camp Kilmer, New Jersey, which was the 
port of embarkation for the European Theatre of Operations. Mrs. 
Granger was sent to Barnstaple, England, as a platoon nurse caring for 
troops. She returned to the U.S. to take up her permanent assignment 
after a passenger/cargo ship, the USS Munargo, was converted into the 
206th U.S. Army Hospital Ship Thistle. She served on the Thistle for 
most of two years, rising in rank to First Lieutenant.
  The home ports for the Thistle were New York City and Charleston, 
South Carolina, while its overseas port was Naples, Italy. As a 
hospital ship, it was considered neutral under the Geneva Convention 
and bore a large red cross on the upper decks. While aboard the 
Thistle, Mrs. Granger made 12 round trips across the Atlantic Ocean 
bringing sick and wounded troops home from the European Theater. While 
in the Mediterranean Sea, the ship shuttled sick and wounded troops 
from Oran, Algeria and Southern France. Mrs. Granger and the rest of 
the crew of the Thistle participated in the Southern France Invasion in 
August 1944. At the end of the war in Europe, the Thistle and Mrs. 
Granger were sent to the Philippine Islands to evacuate the remaining 
sick and wounded. After three years of service, Mrs. Granger returned 
via Long Beach, California, and was discharged in Des Moines, Iowa.
  Mrs. Granger was awarded the World War II Victory Medal, the EAME 
(Eastern, American, Mediterranean) Campaign Medal with three Bronze 
Service Stars, the American Pacific Campaign Medal, and three overseas 
bars.
  Mrs. Granger, a widow, was married to John W. Granger, an Army 
veteran of the war, for thirty years.
  After leaving the Army, she worked as a nurse at the John Cochran 
Veterans Hospital in St. Louis, Missouri, and the Memphis Veterans 
Hospital. She worked a total of thirty years at the two hospitals and 
served in almost all of the departments within the hospitals. For 
several years she was the supervisor of the Spinal Cord Injury, Post 
Surgical Unit, and Psychiatric Departments of the hospital in Memphis.
  Except for her college years in St. Louis, Mrs. Granger has lived in 
Memphis since 1946. She helped open the Veterans Hospital in St. Louis 
and she helped move the Memphis Veterans Hospital from Park and Getwell 
to its current location on Jefferson Avenue. She retired from the VA in 
1979. Mrs. Granger currently lives at the Kirby Pines Retirement 
Community.
  Mrs. Granger is a longtime member of American Legion Post 250 in 
Germantown. I want to commend Mrs. Granger for her long years of 
service to our country and its veterans and hope that my constituents 
and her many friends will thank her for the devoted hard work she has 
done for a grateful nation.

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