During this week in 1996, a heroine passes away. Cordelia “Betty” Cook Fillmore is best known for her service in the U.S
During this week in 1996, a heroine passes away. Cordelia “Betty” Cook Fillmore is best known for her service in the U.S. Army: She was the first American woman to be awarded both the Bronze Star Medal and the Purple Heart. The Kentucky native had served in World War II as a combat nurse, leaving behind her new husband to do it. She’d married Army officer Capt. Harold E. Fillmore just one short month before being deployed. AMAZON PRIME VIDEO WATCH NOW World War II Total War The two would not see each other for 21 months! They were finally reunited in December 1944. By then, Betty was a heroine. Harold was recuperating from an injury at an Army hospital in France. “We were so excited we could hardly eat,” Betty wrote her family back home. “We talked ourselves hoarse, winning the war and going over all the things that have happened since I left the states . . . .” They must have had a lot to talk about. Betty had been serving in Italy with nine other surgical nurses. She was i...