The story of Marion McCune Rice
Red Cross nurses are supposed to be neutral
but how can we be when we see and hear such awful things;
how can Germany have a single friend or defender?
-Marion Rice, 1915
Yvetot, France
BACKGROUND
AANAW Inc. is a group of professionals from the Keene and Brattleboro area organized to make this documentary an educational resource material for our community, New Hampshire and beyond. This is a non-profit organization.
The Project Director, Stephen Hooper, is the grandnephew of Miss Rice. Her letters, photographs, memorabilia and the letters from her French soldier patients are in his possession.
In October, 1992, Mr. Hooper enlarged, framed and captioned 20 of the Rice wartime photographs for a traveling exhibit. Chrystal Montgomery wrote a script for a portrayal of Rice which she performed many times around New England in connection with the photographic exhibit. Jayne Burnett, Board Member of the N.H. West Chapter, American Red Cross, publicized the photographic exhibit and arranged public showings. These three conceived the idea of a video-documentary, which they reasoned would have the potential of reaching a wide audience.
A group of educators from Keene State College has joined Hooper, Montgomery and Burnett. The educators include: Project Humanist, Prof. Eleanor Vander Haegen; Humanists, Prof. David Leinster and Prof. Thomas Durnford; Media Services Director, Michael Wakefield, and Academic Resource person, Prof. Linda Ford.
Additionally, the group include Thomas White, a History teacher at Keene High School, who will be a researcher for the project. Also, Smith College archivist, Margery Sly will assist.
Sponsoring organizations include Keene State College, The Keene Sentinel, American Red Cross--N.H. West Chapter, Creative Encounters and Smith College. Major grant support is from the N.H. Humanities Council.
CONTENT
Recent scholarship has focused on the lives of women in history. The late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries saw an expansion of the role of woman as "nurturer," from the home to the public arena, particularly in fields such as teaching, missionary work and nursing. One such woman was Marion McCune Rice of Brattleboro, Vermont, who served as a nurse in the First World War.
The First World War offered opportunities for women to serve in a great cause. Ultimately, twenty-five thousand American women served abroad in various capacities during the course of the war. This film project will examine the activities of Marion Rice who served with the Red Cross on the Western Front from February, 1915 to January, 1919, a few months after the end of the hostilities.
Rice, a trained nurse, enlisted in the American Red Cross at the outbreak of the war and volunteered for service in France. In recognition of her four years of service she was awarded the Palme Academiques by the French government.
The film will examine the forces of change that affected American women before, during and after the war. Of special interest is Rice's family and educational background, her motivation to serve, her responsibilities as a nurse on the Western Front, her views of the war, and her contacts with family and friends over the four year period.
The story of Marion Rice will draw on a variety of material including her letters home, her photographs taken in France, her memorial book containing letters to her from many French soldiers, who had been her patients, resources available in the Sophia Smith Archive at Smith College and in the archives of Mt. Holyoke, Wellesley and Radcliffe colleges, Red Cross archival material and oral history interviews with those who knew Miss Rice.
To date an exhibit of Rice's photographs, her uniform and other memorabilia, has been put together by Mr. Hooper and shown at the Brooks Memorial Library in Brattleboro, the Sharon Arts Center (New Hampshire ), at the N.H. West Chapter ARC in Keene, at Keene State College, at Smith College and at the Historical Society of Cheshire County. Also, Mrs. Montgomery, drawing on excerpts from Rice's letters, has presented live' portrayals of her experiences throughout New England.
From Simmons College Magazine: Annals of History
Marion McCune Rice: A Pioneer's Story
By Heather Reese Grimshaw '92
Marion McCune Rice '21, a woman who has been described as a pioneer among young professionals of her generation, is the subject of an upcoming documentary that highlights her courageous service as one of the first Red Cross nurses to serve in World War I. The retrospective touches upon her life as an educator and proponent of change in the nursing profession. Rice's wartime experiences and events that led to her 1914 departure for France are featured. Her tenure as a Simmons professor and the second director of the College's School of Public Nursing is reflected in writings after her return from the war in 1919.
Research for the documentary, which was initiated by Rice's great nephew, unveils the profile of a woman of enormous personal strength whose efforts to improve and expand the nursing profession affected several generations of Simmons alumnae.
In an attempt to shed light on the significant roles that women played in WWI, the documentary follows an historical timeline and journey that Rice and eight other nurses embarked upon in 1914, two and a half years before the United States joined the war. Steven Hooper, grandson of Rice's brother, began his research into Rice's life in the early 1980s, when he found a collection of her letters, postcards, and photographs from the war in his uncle's dresser. "Our goal is to educate students and adults about the important roles that women played in WWI, especially in the nursing field, because it is a segment that has really been cheated in the history books," said Hooper. Interest in this story and the information that has been discovered prompted Hooper to create a traveling exhibit of Rice's photographs and may lead to a novel which would include much of the detail that the 26-minute documentary cannot cover. "Marion was always on the cutting edge of events," Hooper said. "Nursing was the most important aspect of her life."
A well-documented personal history shows that Rice's involvement in the war began in Dresden, Germany, on a pleasure trip in 1914, the same year that Archduke Ferdinand's assassination ignited war. Rice, who had recently graduated from the Pennsylvania Hospital Training School and had planned to spend several months in Europe, saw the mobilization of troops and hastily returned to the States. Upon her return Rice received a letter from Jane Delano, director of the American Red Cross Nursing Service, requesting her service in France under the direction of Dr. Fitch, an American orthopedic surgeon. Rice, who spoke French fluently, was one of nine nurses chosen out of several hundred volunteers. "It was a very select list," explains Hooper. "The Red Cross wanted to make sure that they had the best nine nurses possible."
Rice's letters and correspondence reveal a personal attachment to France that explains her motivation to volunteer her services to the country. "She had firsthand experience of the hatred taking place against Paris, a city she loved," said Hooper. "I think her love of France prompted her to serve because she felt that France needed to be saved."
Participating in the war effort by working at three French war hospitals, Rice wrote to her sister-in-law with tales of grueling hours, emotional scenes of wounded soldiers, unrelenting cold weather, and a limited food supply. Yet, despite wartime hardships Rice was one of very few American nurses who declined several opportunities to return to the States, and she never accepted financial stipends from the Red Cross. Her letters, which serve as the basis for much of the dialogue in the documentary, illustrate Rice's personal courage and dedication to her role as a nurse in the war.
She wrote in 1915, "...In a way I was a bit disappointed not to be sene nearer the front, but after all, if we can get the wounded here, it is the same thing. The rest is sort of a love for personal excitement. I have heard, though I do not know officially, that the Red Cross is going to recall all its nurses, but I do not mean to leave unless it is insisted upon. I think we can stay if we want to."
Indeed, during the fall of 1915 the Red Cross withdrew its nurses from the war. However, Rice and Josephine Clay, one of the nine nurses who made the original journey, remained in France under the auspices of the French government until 1917. Records show that most nurses served a six-month to one-year term in the war, and it has been estimated that Rice may be one of 25 nurses out of a pool of thousands of volunteers who served four years. In recognition of their service, Rice and two other nurses received a Palmes Academique award from the French government in 1917, along with Dr. Fitdh, who received the Legion of Honor.
These and other events were documented in more than 49 letters over a four-year period to Rice's sister-in-law. While the correspondence was often critical of America's reluctance to join the war, a compassionate side of Rice is recorded through stories of how she and a team of nurses attempted to distract soldiers who had lost limbs. Stories about weekly excursions into the woods for picnics and the tradition of treat-filled stockings at Christmas were among several personal stories Rice described in her correspondence.
She wrote in 1915, "...We had an awfully good time at Christmas. We made the soldiers hang up socks, much to their amusement, for they had never heard of it before. They said they used to put out their shoes for the 'petite Jesus' when they were children, but never socks. Well, we filled those socks with oranges and chocolates and candy and cigarettes, postcards, writing paper, pens, pencils, oh, all kinds of things they could use. The men were wild over their socks, [and] had a wonderful time. Some of them woke up for these at 3 a.m."
Rice returned to the US in 1919 and enrolled at Simmons College the following year. A graduate of Smith College in 1905, Rice received a bachelor of science degree from Simmons in 1921, after completing a one-year program in industrial nursing for college graduates. From 1921-1925 Rice supervised student field work and assisted in directing Simmons' School of Public Health Nursing. She succeeded Anne Strong as the second director of the School in 1925.
Records from the College's archives show that during her tenure as the director of the School of Public Health Nursing, "The School expanded its programs to accommodate the growing nationwide recognition of the importance of public health. Emphasis was placed on attracting potential leaders to the field of public health nursing and producing well-rounded, college-educated nurses. To this end, Rice concentrated on improving opportunities for diverse field work and observation at area health facilities."
Rice is remembered by one of her first students as an organized professor committed to her students. "She was a wonderful person," says Rachel Woodward Mecham '31. "She was bright and concentrated on making sure that each of her students would do the best that she could." Mecham said that Rice would tell the class about her work in France during WWI. "She was able to make it [the war] personal," said Mecham.
Rice retired from the College in 1932 and died in 1955 at the age of 73. Her great nephew, Hooper, has contacted friends, peers, researchers, and historians to compile a comprehensive history of Rice's life and her extensive accomplishments. The documentary is scheduled to be completed in the fall of 1997, pending successful fund-raising efforts.
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