Milwaukee VA Medical Center

Alice Byrne, as she looked during World War II and today. The nearly 99-year-old Army Veteran gets her care at the Milwaukee VA through the Home-Based Primary Care Program.

Alice Byrne likes to talk. But more importantly, she has a lot to say.

And here’s the kicker: She’s 99 years old as of May 4.

“She’s so passionate and enthusiastic,” said Dr. Irene Kostiwa of the Milwaukee VA Medical Center, who works with Byrne as part of a team of specialists through the Home-Based Primary Care program. “She’s so strong and very intelligent. It’s such an honor to help her.”

Lindsay Sauer, nurse manager of assisted living at Cedar Community in West Bend, Wis., where Alice lives, agreed.

“She’s amazing. It’s so cool to spend time with her,” she said. “She is a walking lesson to all of us on strength, perseverance and resiliency.”

***

“I love to talk about myself,” Byrne said during a telephone interview from her home at Cedar Community – a telephone conversation that lasted nearly an hour.

“The best thing I can say is I had my chances and I took advantage of them,” Byrne said. “When you see a chance, you have to grab onto it.”

Byrne, who served as an Army nurse during World War II and went on to a long career with the Chicago Public Schools, is something of a pioneer, pursuing higher education and a career at a time when most young women were only concerned about landing a husband.

She credits her parents -- immigrants from Hungary -- for instilling in her a passion for education and achievement.

Born in Cleveland, Ohio, and raised in nearby Canton, Byrne dreamed of becoming a doctor.

“But in those days, women could hardly open their mouths, and if you were a woman who wanted to be a doctor, you had to be a millionaire because there was no financial assistance for poor women,” she said.

So Byrne instead decided to become a nurse.

With the assistance of her aunt, who had attended the University of Cincinnati and was working as an instructor at a hospital nursing school, Byrne was able to enroll in Western Reserve University -- now known as Case Western Reserve University.

She went through a rigorous program, earning her bachelor’s degree in three years and then moving into the nursing school’s graduate program.

By the time she was 23, she had a master’s degree.

“I really had to work, but it was wonderful,” she said. “We had some marvelous students. We were so fortunate to have the schooling from Western Reserve -- absolutely the best in the country.”

***

Upon her graduation in May 1944, Byrne awoke one Sunday morning to see a newspaper story proclaiming Congress’ intent to begin drafting nurses to serve, particularly in the Pacific Theater, where the war against the Japanese was taking its toll.

She knew if she was drafted, she would enter the military as a private. But by volunteering, she would enter as a second lieutenant.

“We decided there was no alternative,” she said. “But I was excited. I knew I could do the work because we were taught so well at our nursing school.”

After going through Fort Benjamin Harrison in Indiana, Byrne was assigned to a Mobile Army Surgical Hospital. But before that assignment, the nurses were sent to Fort Knox in Kentucky, where commanders had a different plan for Byrne.

“The CO of that unit came to me and said, ‘Alice, I hate to tell you this: The nursing director at Fort Knox hospital saw your records, and she wants you to take on our unit.’

“I was so mad and furious, but there was nothing I could do,” Byrne said.

While Byrne did not go to the front lines, she treated severely wounded soldiers at the Fort Knox regional hospital.

“I liked the work and the people I worked with,” she said. “When you have a challenge to what your knowledge has prepared you for, you can take satisfaction in that work.”

 

Though Alice Byrne turns 99 on May 4, she still has her original military ID when she joined and became an Army nurse.

***

After the war, Byrne spent a year teaching at a nursing school before moving to Chicago at the behest of a chaplain she knew in Kentucky.

Ever on a thirst for knowledge, Byrne jumped at the opportunity to use the GI Bill, taking courses at the University of Chicago and Loyola University, where she studied Shakespeare.

Byrne met her future husband, Peter, at a social outing, and was immediately smitten.

“As soon as I met him, I loved him so much,” she said. “He was such a good man.”

Alice married Peter when she was 27 -- at that time, an old age for a new bride.

The couple stayed in the Chicago area and went on to have four sons -- Frank, John, Robert and Joe.

After taking time to raise her boys, Alice returned to work, taking part in a new initiative in the Chicago Public Schools, which at the time was packed with students due to the post-war baby boom.

Teachers were overwhelmed in classrooms, unable to keep up with the needs of the students. That’s when school district leaders began forming teams of specialists -- including nurses, social workers, psychologists and speech therapists -- to specifically address those needs.

“It was amazing,” Byrne said. “We did a lot of good work. Every student we worked with showed the benefits of our efforts. We got them out of the gutters and into the schools.”

Alice spent 25 years with the school system. When the program was phased out due to budget cuts, she decided it was time to retire.

Alice and Peter continued to live in Franklin Park, Illinois. The couple had been married for nearly 50 years when Peter died after becoming ill following hip surgery.

When managing the house became too much for Alice, she moved into Cedar Community. Her son, Frank, who became a paraplegic after a fall from a ladder, also lives in the community.

She credits VA with helping her maintain her health and has high praise for the Home-Based Primary Care program.

“The specialists on the team are remarkable,” she said. “This business of getting old is so difficult … but they are such wonderful people.”

Because of the ongoing pandemic, Kostiwa and her team won’t be able to be in West Bend to celebrate Alice’s birthday.

“I wanted to go out there and sing, ‘Happy Birthday,’ but we can’t go in her building,” she said.

Sauer said she and her staff will help Alice celebrate.

“We’ll make a big scene here,” she said.

***

Looking back, Alice cites two things that made her life so rich -- family and education.

“I really think that society has to remember it’s family, family, family that’s so important,” she said. “My parents were very strong physically and emotionally. They brought us up in that vein of life.

“We were encouraged to study, and education was No. 1. It doesn’t require fancy machinery, just downright work and achievement.

“My parents started as poor immigrants. As time went on, they had satisfaction of knowing I got from life the kind of experience I wanted.”

Alice said she’s proud of the path she walked, pursing her education and life experiences

“I knew I was looking at the right way to live. I had this under-the-cap feeling that I was doing right, living right.

“I don’t care I never was a millionaire. I had this wonderful experience.”