Dorothy Still Danner

Dorothy Still Danner
A young white woman in a white Navy uniform, with cap and necktie.
Dorothy Still Danner, from a 1992 publication of the U.S. Department of the Navy.
Born
Dorothy Still

November 29, 1914
Saginaw, Michigan, US
DiedJune 16, 2001
Boise, Idaho, US
Other namesDorothy Still Terrill (after second marriage)
Occupation(s)Navy nurse in World War II, prisoner of war in the Philippines
Notable workWhat a Way to Spend a War (memoir, 1995)

Dorothy Still Danner (November 29, 1914 – June 16, 2001) was an American Navy nurse in World War II, and, as a prisoner of war held by the Japanese from 1942 to 1945, one of the Twelve Anchors.[1]

Early life

Dorothy Still was born in Saginaw, Michigan,[2] the daughter of William H. Still[3] and Arrissa Still.[4] She was raised in Long Beach, California.[5][6] She trained as a nurse at the Los Angeles County General Hospital in 1932.[7][2]

A photograph from 1945, taken outdoors, in front of a series of large tents; about 12 young white women, mostly in denim dresses, are standing and sitting; a man in uniform has his back to the camera.
US Navy Nurses rescued from Los Banos. General Kinkaid facing away from camera; Chief Nurse Laura Cobb to immediate left of Gen. Kinkaid with cigarette; Nurse Dorothy Still Danner seated at far left.

Dorothy Still worked at two hospitals before she joined the Navy in 1937. She was first assigned to Balboa Hospital in San Diego; in 1939, she was sent to Cañacao Naval Hospital in the Philippines.[7]

Still was one of the American Navy nurses, later known as the "Twelve Anchors," who were taken prisoner by Japanese troops in January 1942 in Manila.[8][9] The group was taken first to the University of Santo Tomas, and to the Los Baños prison camp in May 1943. There, despite a severe lack of supplies and malnutrition, they built an infirmary and cared for inmates until the camp was liberated in February 1945.[7][10] On the night before liberation, the guards set up machine guns to prepare to execute all the inmates the following day. Despite this looming threat, Still and nurse Margaret Nash still showed up to the infirmary for their scheduled night shift. Still was on duty during liberation and helped with the evacuation.[8] She was awarded a Gold Star, a Bronze Star, and a Prisoner of War Medal, among other decorations.[11][12][13]

Soon after her return to the United States,[14] Still promoted war bonds for the U. S. Treasury Department.[15] She was transferred to Panama late in 1945. She retired from the Navy when she married in 1947. She experienced ongoing health issues[16] for years after her imprisonment, but found little support; a Navy psychiatrist told her that nurses could not experience posttraumatic stress disorder like soldiers did.[17] She worked as a nurse and a hospital supervisor in her civilian life. In retirement, she wrote a memoir of her wartime experiences, What a Way to Spend a War: Navy Nurse POWs in the Philippines (1995).[18] In 2019, she was the subject of the book, This is Really War: The Incredible True Story of a Navy Nurse POW in the Occupied Philippines.[8]

Personal life

Dorothy Still married Goldburn Robert Danner in 1947.[19] They had three children, the third born after Peck Danner's death in 1956, from a heart attack.[7][20] She was known as Dorothy Still Terrill in the 1980s, after a second marriage.[21] Still died on June 16, 2001, aged 86 years, at a veteran's home in Boise, Idaho.[2] Her remains were buried, with full military honors, in Arlington National Cemetery.[22] Her name, along with the names of the other Angels of Bataan nurses, is on a historical marker in Cavite City in the Philippines.[23]

References

  1. ^ "The Twelve Anchors: POW nurses' sacrifice, service honored". WGN-TV. 2019-05-28. Retrieved 2020-02-28.
  2. ^ a b c J. K. H. (September–October 2001). "In Memoriam". Navy Medicine. 92: 36.
  3. ^ "Still". Long Beach Independent. January 19, 1955. p. 22. Retrieved September 26, 2019 – via Newspapers.com.
  4. ^ "Still". Long Beach Press Telegram. July 28, 1949. p. 26. Retrieved September 26, 2019 – via NewspaperArchive.com.
  5. ^ "Three Nurses among 17 Missing Navy Heroes from Los Angeles Area". The Los Angeles Times. July 14, 1942. p. 6. Retrieved September 26, 2019 – via Newspapers.com.
  6. ^ "29 Long Beachers Among 1044 Navy Personnel Taken Prisoners by Japanese". Long Beach Independent. May 16, 1943. p. 20. Retrieved September 26, 2019 – via NewspaperArchive.com.
  7. ^ a b c d Danner, Dorothy Still (May–June 1992). "Reminiscences of a Nurse POW". Navy Medicine. 83: 36–40 – via Internet Archive.
  8. ^ a b c Lucchesi, Emilie Le Beau (2019). This is really war : the incredible true story of a Navy nurse POW in the occupied Philippines. ISBN 978-1-64160-076-7. OCLC 1055679731.
  9. ^ Elizabeth M. Norman, We Band of Angels: The Untold Story of the American Women Trapped on Bataan (Random House 2011). ISBN 9780307799579
  10. ^ "Oral Histories – U.S. Navy Nurse Prisoner of War in the Philippines, 1942–1945". Naval History and Heritage Command. Retrieved 2019-09-26.
  11. ^ "Dorothy Still – Recipient". Military Times Hall Of Valor. Retrieved 2019-09-26.
  12. ^ United States Navy Department Bureau of Medicine and Surgery (1945). White Task Force: The Story of the Nurse Corps, United States Navy. U.S. Government Printing Office. p. 1935.
  13. ^ "Four Southland Nurses Given War Awards". The Los Angeles Times. September 5, 1945. p. 14. Retrieved September 26, 2019 – via Newspapers.com.
  14. ^ Tremaine, Frank (March 6, 1945). "Navy Nurses, Rescued from Los Banos, Flying Here on Way Home". Honolulu Star-Bulletin. p. 4. Retrieved September 26, 2019 – via Newspapers.com.
  15. ^ "Nurse Stresses Prison Horrors". The Los Angeles Times. April 25, 1945. p. 9. Retrieved September 26, 2019 – via Newspapers.com.
  16. ^ "Navy Nurse, Rescued from Japs, Guest at Arrowhead Springs". The San Bernardino Sun. April 13, 1945. p. 9. Retrieved September 26, 2019 – via Newspapers.com.
  17. ^ Lucchesi, Emilie Le Beau (May 7, 2019). "For Nurses, Trauma Can Come With the Job". The New York Times. Retrieved September 26, 2019.
  18. ^ Meixsel, Richard B. (2015-10-02). Philippine-American Military History, 1902–1942: An Annotated Bibliography. McFarland. p. 118. ISBN 9781476609751.
  19. ^ "Valley Home Relief after Prison Camp". Valley Times. April 18, 1947. p. 6. Retrieved September 26, 2019 – via Newspapers.com.
  20. ^ "Convention TV Man Dies". The San Francisco Examiner. August 21, 1956. p. 15. Retrieved September 26, 2019 – via Newspapers.com.
  21. ^ Norman, Elizabeth M.; Eifried, Sharon (October 1994). "How Did They All Survive? An Analysis of American Nurses' Experiences in Japanese Prisoner-of-War Camps". Nursing History Review, Volume 3: Official Journal of the American Association for the History of Nursing. University of Pennsylvania Press. ISBN 9780812214529.
  22. ^ "Dorothy Still Danner, Lieutenant, United States Navy". Arlington National Cemetery. Retrieved 2019-09-26.
  23. ^ "To the Angels - Cavite City - Calabarzon - PH". Historical Marker Project. Retrieved 2019-09-28.