Back to previous page Home > News > Local > Mass. 'An extraordinary woman' recalled  A nurse's code led her to Normandy By Avi Steinberg, Globe Correspondent, 6/6/2004 The last time Irwin Sidman of Sharon, 68, saw his Aunt Frances was 1943. With great difficulty, Frances Slanger explained to her adoring 7-year-old nephew that enlisting in the Army Nurse Corps and joining the Allied invasion of Europe were matters of vital importance. But then, reaching the limits of her persuasive abilities, Frances did what she knew best: she offered him comfort. They cried together and then she was gone. A year and a few months later -- shortly after she had landed on the treacherous shores of Normandy -- Frances was killed by a shell, and became the first American nurse to die in Europe. "I remember the day we got the telegram," Sidman recalled recently, sitting in restaurant not far from the South End neighborhood that his aunt had once called home. "My parents just told me that 'she's not coming home.' I knew what that meant and that was it. We left it at that." But 60 years later, Sidman is experiencing a reunion of sorts with his beloved aunt. Bob Welch, a veteran columnist for The Register-Guard, in Eugene, Ore., has written a book that makes use of Slanger's letters and poetry, "American Nightingale: The Story of Frances Slanger, Forgotten Heroine of Normandy" (Atria Books, Simon & Schuster). A Polish-Jewish immigrant to the United States, Slanger endured a difficult childhood that made her, at once, hard to connect with and compassionate for all suffering people. As Welch notes in his book, Slanger's Boston connections are strong, though rooted in a past fading with time. The sign for Frances Slanger Square, dedicated in 1951 at Angell Street and Blue Hill Avenue, disappeared decades ago. Boston City Hospital's School of Nursing, where Slanger graduated in 1937, closed in 1957. Slanger's childhood apartment building has given way to the Boston Herald's offices. More than 50 years after hundreds of Bostonians paid their respects to Slanger's flag-shrouded coffin, she is all but unknown in her hometown. With the publication of his book, Welch hopes to change that. "I've gotten a book for everyone in the family," says her still-adoring nephew Sidman, "including copies for my grandchildren who can't read yet. I've set aside one for each of them. I want them to know her, who she was." Sidman admits that he has learned a great deal from the book that he hadn't known about his aunt and his family. "I guess I know her better now that I ever had before. It just makes me miss her more. It really makes her come to life for me," says Sidman. "I hope that with this book other people will also take the time to learn about her. She was an extraordinary woman during a period of extraordinary people." © Copyright 2004 Globe Newspaper Company. Back to previous page