| Back to e-WV
The West Virginia Encyclopedia
| Back to e-WV
The West Virginia Encyclopedia
Nurse Dolores Imogene Dowling (May 30, 1914-April 8, 1996) was born in South Point, Ohio. She graduated from Huntington’s St. Mary’s Hospital School of Nursing in 1934 and worked in Huntington as a registered nurse and medical secretary from 1935 to 1942.
Dowling joined the Army Nurse Corps on July 1, 1942, and left the service as a first lieutenant in 1946. A combat surgical nurse with the first Mobile Army Surgical Hospital, Dowling served with the 11th Field Hospital in North Africa and Sicily. She was one of the first American nurses to land during the 1943 invasion of Sicily at Gela. Dowling received four Battle Stars, a Bronze Assault Arrowhead, a Meritorious Service Award, and two Presidential Unit Citations. Injured in the line of duty, she later served as a nurse procurement officer for the surgeon general’s office.
Dowling returned to civilian life as an office manager for the Greater Huntington Radio Corporation and WHTN-TV and radio, later working for the Greater Huntington Theatre Corporation. In 1963, she became secretary and administrative assistant at the Veterans Administration Regional Office in Huntington.
Written by Russ Barbour
Kelly, Richard A. Outstanding West Virginians. Charleston: Bold Enterprises, 1969.
Comstock, Jim, ed. West Virginia Heritage Encyclopedia vol. 7. Richwood: Jim Comstock, 1976.