Dauser, Sue (1888–1972)

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Dauser, Sue (1888–1972)

American superintendent of Navy Nurse Corps. Born Sue Sophia Dauser in Anaheim, California, Sept 20, 1888; died Mar 1972 in Mount Angel, Oregon; dau. of Francis X. Dauser and Mary Anna (Steuckle) Dauser; attended Leland Stanford University, 1907–09; graduate of California Hospital School of Nursing, Los Angeles.

Joined Naval Reserve as a nurse (1917); during WWI, became chief nurse of US Navy, serving at naval hospitals in Brooklyn, San Diego, and aboard ship; when President Warren G. Harding made his Alaskan cruise on the Henderson, tended him aboard ship during his final illness (1923); was named superintendent of Navy Nurse Corps (1939); promoted to the relative rank of captain (1943), equivalent to Florence A. Blanchfield's army rank of colonel, making her the 1st American woman entitled to wear four gold stripes; outranking all other women commanders in the armed forces, continued her leadership of some 8,000 nurse officers until Nov 1945, when she stepped down as superintendent.

See also Women in World History.