Mildred “Andy” Anderson traveled the world as a member of the U.S. Army Nurse Corps, treating wounded American soldiers throughout the war-torn decades of the mid-20th century. She rose to the rank of lieutenant colonel before retiring from the Army in 1966.
Anderson, MA ’56, died February 3 in Dunedin, Fla. She was 91.
Mildred Jane Anderson was born in Topeka, Kan., in 1921, attended high school in St. Louis and received her bachelor’s degree in physical education from the University of Iowa. Following her college graduation, she served in the Nurse Corps for 20 years, earning her physical therapy certification at Stanford along the way. Her deployments took her to Germany and Korea, among other countries.
Anderson’s eldest niece, Jane Casewit, says that while in Korea Anderson developed a fondness for a local boy whose legs had been crushed by a tank; Anderson even encouraged her sister’s family to adopt the child. “She had a very human kindness that extended beyond just the servicemen she was there to care for,” Casewit says.
While in Korea, Anderson met Jeraldine “Jerry” York, a surgical nurse with whom Anderson remained best friends for the rest of her life.
Her international work completed with the conclusion of the Korean War, Anderson was named director of physical therapy at Walter Reed Hospital in Washington, D.C., the Army’s primary medical center. Upon her retirement in 1966, she and York migrated south to Florida where Anderson invested much of her time at St. Alfred’s Episcopal Church and the Dunedin Golf Club. She was also an active wood-carver and continued to travel.
Her home often served as a launching pad for her nieces and nephews’ globetrotting adventures as well. It was “always a sort of home base for all our travels,” Casewit says. “She was always extremely open to all of us.”
Anderson was predeceased by her sister, Mary. In addition to Jerry and Jane, she is survived by nieces Barbara and Molly Alexander, nephews Harry and Peter Alexander, and numerous grandnieces and grandnephews.
Ryan Eshoff is a student in the graduate program in journalism and a Stanford intern.
