Jane Delano - Death

Death

Jane Delano died in France while on a Red Cross mission, expiring at Base Hospital No. 8 in Savenay of Loire-Inferieure, and was interred in a cemetery in the Loire Valley. The mission was to participate in and represent the American Red Cross at the preliminary conference of Red Cross workers and health experts of the world being held at Cannes. Awarded the Distinguished Service Medal posthumously, the year following her death her remains were brought back to the United States by the Army Quartermaster Corps and re-interred in the nurses section at Arlington National Cemetery. At the top of the hill overlooking the nurses section is a bronze memorial to Jane Delano and the 296 nurses who lost their lives during World War I. Military funeral services, prior to burial, were held Saturday, September 18, 1920. A number of representatives of the American Red Cross, Army officers of the Army Medical Corps, and a delegation of uniformed nurses attended the funeral. A detachment of Army troops and a military band from Fort Myers acted as an escort for the body when it was taken to the grave from the vault at Arlington Cemetery. All present stood silent as "taps" was given over the grave of Miss Delano.

The following is the award citation to Miss Jane A. Delano:

"By direction of the President and under the provisions of the Act of Congress approved July 9, 1918, the Distinguished Service Medal was awarded posthumously to MISS JANE A. DELANO for exceptionally meritorious and conspicuous service as Director, Department of Nursing, American Red Cross. She applied her great energy and used her powerful influence among the nurses of the country to secure enrollments in the American Red Cross. Through her great efforts and devotion to duty eighteen thousand seven hundred and thirty-two nurses were secured and transferred to the Army Nurse Corps for service during the war. Thus she was a great factor in assisting the Medical Department in caring for the sick and wounded."

Delano has been honored many times for her dedication to humanity. She was named to the American Nurses Association Hall of Fame and at Schuyler County Hospital in Dix, New York there is a Jane Delano Memorial with a display of personal items including a number of her awards and medals. In 1990, the National Nursing Advisory Committee formed the "Jane Delano Society" to ensure active nursing involvement at all levels of the Red Cross and to preserve artifacts that document the history of Red Cross nursing.