At first glance, a story about a Jewish woman who was born in Poland, brought up in Boston and died in Belgium during World War II wouldn't seem to have much significance to folks in Oregon.

Or to those in Boston or Poland.

In fact, even to those whose lives were so affected by Frances Slanger when she was alive -- especially in the months after her death -- hers was a story nearly forgotten.

People in Oregon have brought back to life the memory of the "forgotten heroine of Normandy." And because they cared, Frances' moving story, and the work of the other unsung heroines from the U.S. Army Nurse Corps who served with the 45th Field Hospital Unit in Europe during World War II, will be celebrated in a tribute and a reunion on the East Coast this week.

Once again, as in 1944, the young woman who never stood out in a crowd is being celebrated and mourned by a world that barely knew she existed before she died.

And once again, she is being honored for the letter she wrote from her heart, in the middle of the night, in a storm-racked tent in Belgium.

Frances had no idea she would die the day she mailed the letter. She had no idea how her words would touch the military men who read it in Stars and Stripes 17 days after her death, before the publication knew she had been killed in a German artillery attack.

And she could not have anticipated the reaction her death would cause.

She always wanted to be a nurse. She always wanted to be a writer. She always wanted to make a difference. In 1944, she did all three.

Bob Welch was desperate for a column topic. It was 2000, shortly before Christmas, and the columnist at the Register-Guard in Eugene couldn't find anything with a local angle. With a deadline looming, Bob got a call from a reader. "He said he'd found this beautiful letter in a book on Jewish women." The man gave seminars about the Holocaust to local schools. "He said, 'You have to write a column about this nurse who wrote this beautiful letter.'"

There was no Oregon tie, but Bob was touched by the story of Frances Slanger's letter and subsequent death. "I used the theme of the passing of the World War II generation, and how important it is to remember these people."

The day the story ran, Bob got a call from a Eugene woman named Sallylou Bonzer. "She said, 'My goodness. You wrote a column about my friend Frances Slanger this morning.'" Sallylou, a nurse, and her husband, John Bonzer, a doctor, had served with Frances in World War II. In fact, Sallylou and John had met in Europe, married after the war, settled in Eugene and raised four children. There was an Oregon connection to the story after all. "She and her husband had photo albums, and phone numbers of nurses they thought were still alive on the East Coast," Bob says.

The Bonzers, in their early 80s, also had good memories. "I drove away from their house thinking it had possibilities as a book, " Bob says. Ten weeks later, he had located a nephew of Frances' in Florida. "He was 8 when she died. He said, 'My aunt, to me, was a god in pedal pushers. She was the most amazing, selfless person I've ever met. This will sound weird, but I still miss her every day.' I thought, what kind of person dies 60 years ago and still has that effect on her nephew?"

Bob also had discovered what he calls "the mother lode" in the archives at Boston University: "It was all her personal writing as a young woman." The aspiring writer "would clip out newspaper articles and little quotes of inspiration and put them in this book. You can learn an awful lot about someone based on what they clip and save."

Bob saw that Frances, who immigrated to the United States at 7, shortly after World War I, had clipped early stories about Hitler and the murder of Jews in Europe. "It told me she had a keen understanding of what was going on in the world."

Bob's book about Frances, "American Nightingale," was released last week. It's drawn a lot of attention.

"The thing that surprises me is how emotional people seem to get over the book," Bob says. "So often our heroes are powerful, rich, good-looking -- people we look up to because they can slam dunk a basketball or they're the winner on a survival show.

"Yet here's a book about this obscure Jewish girl," who touched people with a letter she wrote, praising the heroism of American soldiers. Frances was short and heavy and wore thick glasses. In a time when Stars and Stripes had never shown a picture of an American woman that wasn't cheesecake, Frances wrote a letter so powerful the editors gave her an honor they'd given only one other American -- General Dwight Eisenhower. They ran her piece as a guest editorial with a banner headline.

The editors and readers of Stars and Stripes had no idea when the Nov. 10, 1944, edition came out that Frances' body was lying in a makeshift cemetery in Belgium. "It is 0200 and I have been lying awake for one hour, listening to the steady, even breathing of the other three nurses in the tent," her letter began. She said she'd read articles by GIs praising nurses in combat areas. "Sure we rough it," she wrote, "but in comparison to the way you men are taking it, we can't complain."

Writing of the countless wounded men she'd seen, Frances wrote, "We have learned a great deal about our American soldier, and the stuff he is made of. The wounded do not cry. Their buddies come first. The patience and determination they show, the courage and fortitude they have is sometimes awesome to behold. It is we who are proud to be here."

Hundreds wrote Stars and Stripes to thank Frances for her letter. Even more wrote mourning her death after it was announced in the next edition. "I was stunned at how eloquent GIs writing letters in foxholes and blown-out churches could be," Bob says. The men were "saddened, in pain, saying something must be done to honor this woman."

Their requests were granted. Frances was made a hero in the United States. Speeches were given about her; national radio shows did special programs; newspapers and magazines wrote stories. A hospital ship was christened the Frances Y. Slanger.

Over time, the memory of Frances dimmed and nearly died out. But in 2004, because of Oregonians who remembered and who shared her story, Frances Slanger is again being remembered for her sacrifice, her writing and her appreciation of U.S. fighting men.

Frances Slanger might have been a person easy to overlook in person. "Yet she had a sense she would make a difference in the world," Bob says. "And ultimately she did."

Margie Boule: 503-221-8450; marboule@aol.com

© Copyright 2004 OregonLive.com.



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