Oregon’s Oldest Woman Veteran Dies

Jean in a 2016 video gives her advice on life

 

Portland, Or. – Oregon’s oldest woman veteran has died at her NE Portland home at the age of 104. Jean Wojnowski served as a nurse in World War Two. She spent two years in Australia and a year in New Guinea. She said in an interview 3 years ago ” I wouldn’t have missed it for anything. I really, since we had to be in the war, I certainly appreciated I could be a part of it.”

While serving in Australia, First Lady Elanor Roosevelt dropped by for a visit. Jean remembered while serving in New Guinea, one of the other nurses found a snake in her tent.

Her daughter Wanda says  “she left us very peacefully while holding my hands so tightly – she was strong in every way.  I could hardly tell she had departed on her next journey after having lived a very full and satisfying life by her own account to the age of 104! ”

She’ll be buried at Willamette National Cemetery later this week.