Lapel pin for Honorable Discharge issued to Lt. Louise Lomax, Army Nurse Corps
date: label: Date
content: 1949
name: label: Manufactured by
content: Unidentified
label: Distributed by
content: United States Government, American, founded 1789
label: Owned by
content: Louise Virginia Lomax, American, 1920 - 2011
notes: label: Caption
content: Louise Lomax was born in January 1920 in Nottoway, Virginia, to James and Annie Shepperson Lomax. She received her high school diploma in 1938 from Ingleside-Fee Memorial High School, a segregated boarding school in Burkeville, Virginia. Her maternal grandfather sent her and other grandchildren to study at this school. Lomax continued her studies at the Saint Philip Hospital School of Nursing, a segregated nursing school that was part of the Medical College of Virginia in Richmond. She graduated in September 1942 and passed her nursing examinations in Virginia, Maryland, and D.C.
label: Caption
content: Lomax joined the Army Nurse Corps (ANC) as a 2nd Lieutenant in March 1943 with the help of the National Association of Colored Graduate Nurses. While in the ANC, she trained as a psychiatric nurse at St. Elizabeths Hospital in Washington, D.C. By September 1943 she was stationed at Tuskegee Army Air Field in Alabama, home of the Tuskegee Airmen, where she was eventually promoted to 1st Lieutenant. She served at Tuskegee until 1946 when the airfield was inactivated after the end of the war. For her service in World War II, she was awarded a World War II Victory Medal and an American Campaign Medal. After the war, Lomax went on to serve at Lockbourne Army Air Base in Ohio, Provident Hospital in Baltimore, Maryland, at VA hospitals in Downey, Illinois, and Perry Point, Maryland, and finally at the Army’s Percy Jones General Hospital in Battle Creek, Michigan. She retired from active duty in March 1949 at Battle Creek, receiving an Honorable Discharge lapel pin, and transferred to the Reserve Corps. She served in the reserves for four years before retiring in April 1953.
label: Caption
content: Lomax married Methodist minister John Lonnie Winters in November 1954, with whom she had one child, Pia Winters Jordan, the donor. As a civilian, Lomax worked as a psychiatric nurse at St. Elizabeths Hospital in Washington, D.C., where she served for a time as head nurse. She also instructed nursing assistants and worked with the criminally insane. She retired from nursing in June 1973.
label: Description
content: A "Ruptured Duck" Honorable Discharge lapel pin issued to Lt. Louise Lomax upon her retirement from active duty with the Army Nurse Corps in 1949, while stationed at the Army's Percy Jones General Hospital in Battle Creek, Michigan. The pin is gold colored and has an attached pushpin clasp. The pin is in the shape of a circle with an eagle at center. The eagle’s wings are outstretched and extend beyond the edge of the rest of the lapel pin.
place: label: Place used
content: Battle Creek, Calhoun County, Michigan, United States, North and Central America
topic: label: Topic
content: African American
label: Topic
content: Medicine
label: Topic
content: Military
label: Topic
content: Nursing
label: Topic
content: Segregation
label: Topic
content: Women
setName: label: See more items in
content: National Museum of African American History and Culture Collection
label: Classification
content: Awards, Medals, and Insignia
creditLine: label: Credit Line
content: Collection of the Smithsonian National Museum of African American History and Culture, Gift of Pia Marie Winters Jordan in memory of her mother, First Lieutenant Louise Virginia Lomax Winters, Army Nurse Corps; and her uncle, Sgt. Henry James Lomax, U.S. Army
dataSource: label: Data Source
content: National Museum of African American History and Culture
identifier: label: Object number
content: 2022.42.2.5
objectType: label: Type
content: insignias
objectRights: label: Restrictions & Rights
content: No known copyright restrictions
label: Restrictions & Rights
content: Proper usage is the responsibility of the user.
physicalDescription: label: Medium
content: metal
label: Dimensions
content: H x W x D: 3/8 × 9/16 × 3/16 in. (1 × 1.5 × 0.5 cm)