The Waterbury Democrat., 1944-07-12
Wa7~ PlayS No FaUO1iteS Story Army Who Believed WOmAn Place Was the Front
Story of an Army Nun
By THOMAS M. WOLF (NEA Stan CoFrespondentl

London-This is the story of a girl who thought that in wartime a woman's place was not at home but in uniform.
 Her name was LaVerne Farqu- har, though almost everyone at the front line field hospital to which she was attached called her Tex the inevitable nickname for any one with the marked Texas drawl of her native Abilene.
 At the front" was no generali- zation in this case. Through one of those inevitable snafus, the field hospital had been set up about four miles from the enemy lines in Italy, several miles ahead of our own heavy artillery.
 l had dropped into the hospital late one night, looking for a dry bed. About dawn the next morning I was awakened by Tex's bawling drawl. She was mad. Some enemy shells were dropping right in the hospital area and Tex and the other nurses were being made to move to a rear area for safety until the hospital itself could be moved few miles back. She wanted to stay with her patients.
 We waded ashore under fire when we landed in Italy" Tex said, so angry she forgot to be scared. Another time they strafed us dur ing an operation. One piece of shrapnel hit the oxygen bottle at the end of the operating table. Now they want us to move back just because a few shells are falling somewhere in this camp.
 These, of course, were excep- tional incidents. But front-iine nursing was never really comfort able.
 At the time I visited this hos pital, 1t was 8 tent camp pitched fin the middle of a flat field which the December Italian rains had turned into a slimy bog of mud Q couple of feet deep. Nothing left on the ground in the tent was dry. Neither were the nurses, who had to wade through at least one of the pools every time they went in or out. That's the toughest part of living here," Tex told me. When you get wet, you darn well stay wet flor days"
 That, and getting tired. Some- times Tex worked for two days at a stretch without any sleep.
 During the first two months that this hospital was in Italy, the sur gical team for which Tex was nurse land also mother, girl friend and sister, operated on over 100 critical ly wounded soldiers. Not one of them died during an operation.
 That was Tex's contribution to the war-her answer to those who believe that a woman's place is in the home. Sure, Tex wanted 8 home, and to stay in it-one day. But right now T wouldn't go home if could" Tex said. You don't have to be here long to know that this is where you can do the most good"
 The last time I saw Tex she was in Naples on a three-day rest-and- leave pass. She didn't talk about her work. She showed no signs of two months constantly at the front. By the end of the third day she was almost anxious to get back to the front.
 But it was not the last time l heard of her. The other day I got a letter from the head surgeon of Tex's team, written from Anzio, Tex and the surgical team had gone into the beachhead on D-Day. "On Feb. TO-" the letter read, "our area was shelled."
 That must have seemed like old times to Tex.
 The letter went on: '"Tex" was killed instantly.