Category Archives: People

Honor Our Vets Every Day

I’m honored to be able to live with, meet, or talk to these wonderful vets or their family. The interactions with the 95th nurses (or their children) was in researching the book (A Burnished Rose) and the TV pilot screenplay for a series about the 95ht nurses – think Band of Brothers but about 95th Evacuation Hospital nurses. You’d be amazed by what they went through. Their story needs to be told!

  • Lloyd Keleny (my dad), Staff Sargent in the 3rd Armored. Earned 2 purple hearts
  • Charles Craven (my father-in-law), Airforce, Korean War
  • Marcy Korda Schlemma. 2nd Lt ANC 95th Evac Hospital
  • Lillian Smith Sheppler, 2nd Lt ANC 95th Evac Hospital
  • Burnice Walden Thibodeau, 2nd Lt ANC 95th Evac Hospital
  • Adeline Simonson, 2nd Lt ANC 95th Evac Hospital
  • (Right) Othelia Rosten, 2nd Lt ANC 95th Evac Hospital
  • Helen Talboy Manlony, 2nd Lt ANC 95th Evac Hospital
  • Isabelle Wheeler, 2nd Lt ANC 95th Evac Hospital

This is Important – Bruce Springsteen and Don Winslow

I don’t usually like to get too political on this blog, but as President Obama says in this piece, ‘this is not a time to sit out.’

This is about Philadelphia, but it could be about anywhere.

This is a unprecedented time in our country.

Every vote counts. Please vote.

National Nurses Day! – 1943 and 2020

I can’t pass up National Nurses Day without mentioning the wonderful 95th Evacuation Hospital nurses.

The whole 95th medical staff

I continue to search out 95th staff for my TV limited series about the 95th nurses. Just recently I was put in contact with a 95th nurse who is 99 years young! Burnice/Billie/Hut Sut Walden Thibodeau.

I’ve also been honored to talk with Marcy “Schlem” Schlemma Korda, still living in Minnesota at 98.

I was able to talk with Lillian “Smitty” Smith Scheppler before she passed last year.

I’ve been able to connect with Adeline “Si” Simonson’s children, Helen Tallboy’s son, and family of Othelia “Oats” Rosten.

Wonderful women and nurses, all!

Honoring Our Vets

My dad, a staff sergeant of the 3rd Armored.

This day means a lot to me, as it does to so many.

For me it underscores my desire to honor some of these vets, specifically the nurses of the 95th.

I have a pilot for a TV mini-series about the 95th Evacuation Hospital nurses. Think Band of Brothers but with the nurses about the 95th. The woman on the right is Marcy “Schlem” Schlemma Korda, who is still with us, living in a small town in Minnesota where she and her husband (a 95th surgeon) moved to after the war. The woman on the left is Lillian “Smitty” Smith Scheppler. Both these women helped me when I was writing my historical fiction novel in 2010-11 (A Burnished Rose – Book I, Book II)

Lillian left us this spring but both woman gave me information I could never have found in the books that I used.

These women couldn’t have come into contact with my dad, but they helped so many young men and they did so under very difficult circumstances: the hot, cold, and sands of the North African desert, were bombed on a British hospital ship, bombed on the beach at Anzio in Italy where some of the 95th staff lost their lives, in France and the bitter cold of Germany during the winter, living and working in canvas tents.

I have recently connected with the children of another 95th nurse, Adeline “Si” Simonson. Both Marvin and Carolyn have a keen interest what their mother and the women of the 95th did in WWII, so I’d have even more help in telling the 95th’s story.

These women’s story needs to be told and I’d be honored to help tell their story.

The 95th Officers (MDs) and Nurses with CO (center) Paul Sauer.

If anyone knows any of the members of the 95th, I’d appreciate if you contacted me. Thanks!