News-Info-Alerts

Re: Former Nurse POW Passes

To: ALL

From: Andi Wolos & Bob Necci

(POW-MIA InterNetwork)

Date: March 16, 2002

"Dorcas E. Easterling Kelley: Former Army nurse, POW
03/13/2002 - By LaKISHA LADSON / The Dallas Morning News

Dorcas E. Easterling Kelley, a former Army nurse who was a prisoner of war during World War II, died Friday at The Forum at Park Lane in Dallas.

Services are private.

Mrs. Kelley, 87, was one of 64 Army nurses liberated from a Japanese military prison in the Philippines in 1945. She had been held at the Manila prison for three years.

Mrs. Kelley was an Army nurse from 1940 to 1949. During the war, she treated soldiers and operated in underground tunnels in the Philippines.

"She was just a devoted and caring person and was proud to have served her country," said her daughter, Diana Lynn Kelley of Dallas.

After the war, Mrs. Kelley was stationed in Germany. She was awarded the Army of Occupation Medal with Germany clasp, which was given for 30 or more consecutive days of military service in occupied territory after the war.

She later worked at the hospital now called Methodist Medical Center, where she was a fourth-floor supervisor. She was also a registered nurse at a family medical clinic. After her retirement, Mrs. Kelley worked as a private nurse.

"She was a very likable person, very friendly [and] easygoing," her daughter said.

Mrs. Kelley, who was born Nov. 2, 1914, in Abbott, Texas, graduated from nursing school in Temple in 1938.

She is also survived by a brother, E. Wayne Easterling of Ashland City, Tenn.

E-mail lladson@dallasnews.com "