September 17, 1917 - December 9, 2018
Almyra Maynard Watson entered the Army Nurse Corps after completing training in 1939 and had a nursing career in the military that spanned a quarter of a century. During her career she served in both the U.S. and in foreign countries, and she was one of the first nurses to work in military field conditions.
Almyra Watson was born on September 17, 1917 to G.M. and Jennie Llloyd Watson. The family lived in the Lake Landing commuity of Hyde County, North Carolina. When Almyra was a young girl, they moved to Bethel in Pitt County. According a brief biographical entry in the Chronicles of Pitt County, her father was the first owner of an automobile in Pitt County and he operated the county's first service station there.
She trained to be a nurse at St. Vincent's Hospital in Norfolk, Virginia in 1939. Following this training, she joined the National Guard and was due to leave the service after her year was up when the U.S. entered World War II. She was selected for a special field hospital program in the Army and ended up staying in the Army for 23 years. During that time, she became one of the first nurses to work in medical setups in field conditions and she later became a consultant for this area of operations. She eventually attained the rank of major.
During her Army nursing career she was stationed in a number of places, including: Fort Monroe, Virgnia (in the early 1950s); the Army's Walter Reed Hospital in Washington, D.C. (in the mid-1950s); Fort Knox, Kentucky (around 1960); and locations overseas including Germany, the Phillipines, and Japan. She served in both WWII and the Korean Conflict.
Almyra Watson retired from the Army in 1963. During her retirement, she has been active in local civic and volunteer efforts, including the Red Cross, veterans organizations and the Daughters of the American Revolution. Even into her 90s, Watson stayed active in the community. In 2008 she was part of a local excercise class called "Hearts 'N Sync" and participated in the local Reindeer Dash for Cash, 5 and 10K road races organized to raise funds to support fallen soldier charities.
Almyra Watson celebrated her 101th birthday in September 2018. She later died on December 9 of the same year.