Grace Esther Edhegard Smith

Grace Esther Edhegard Smith was quite literally conceived in service to others. Her parents were missionaries in the Belgian Congo throughout World War I, departing finally in 1919 the year of Grace's birth. Her mother was a very devoted nurse and for Grace nursing seemed a natural calling. Her life was marked by hardship as her family moved frequently before landing in Silverhill, Alabama in the mid 1920's. When the Great Depression descended on the little town, as the oldest of now eight children, Grace Edhegard took on many responsibilities normally reserved for adults. She relied on her natural grit as well as her devoted belief in Jesus Christ whom she took as her personal savior at the age of 12. From that point forward she said that tending to the suffering was destined to become her calling. Little did she know that her calling would eventually take her back to the African continent where her parents had met as missionaries.

Grace Esther Edhegard, high school graduation, 1935.

A graduate of Robertsdale High School at the age of 16, Grace Edhegard departed Silverhill for Birmingham, Alabama and nursing school. Not long after her graduation in 1941 as a fully accredited Registered Nurse the attack on Pearl Harbor occurred. When the US Army expanded the Women's Army Corps, Grace immediately joined. Following several months of training in stateside army medical facilities she was commissioned a 2nd Lieutenant and ordered to the North African theatre of the World War II.

The troop ship on which she was aboard was attacked by a German submarine as it rounded the southern tip of Africa but it's torpedoes missed. Eventually the ship made its way up the eastern coast before docking at the port of Asmara in the war-torn nation of Eritrea. There Grace and several hundred other medical personnel disembarked and employing mostly tents established a general field hospital and smaller more specialized treatment tents. This method of treating wounded troops in the field served as the model for the now famous MASH units which followed in the Korean War.

Immediately, the relatively small band of doctors, nurses and technicians were nearly overwhelmed by the influx of wounded American and British servicemen fighting German and Italian troops in Libya, Egypt, Sudan and Ethiopia. Working without rest for three and four days at a time, Lt. Edhegard and her medical corps colleagues saved lives that likely numbered in the thousands. When the victorious Allies moved the action into Sicily and Italy, most of Grace's medical unit received surprising orders. Two planes were to carry them and their equipment to Persia!

Egypt 1942. Lt. Edhegard front left.

The western allies had been unable to yet open a western front and wouldn't for another 18 months until D-Day's Operation Overlord took place in June 1944. Until then the free world had to rely on the Soviet Army to hold back the Germans on the bitter Eastern Front and the Russians needed arms! The American army answered that call as best it could by deploying 30,000 men to assemble tanks and large artillery pieces and get them up to the Iranian border with the Soviet Union. Additionally, thousands of trucks were loaded with munitions, medical supplies and food and brought to the border where Soviet troops were ready to receive everything, including most of the trucks. The relief effort worked but at a real cost in human lives and misery. Grace Edhegard later described Persia as country so primitive it was difficult to believe she hadn't been deployed to the Middle Ages. Diseases of all kinds ravaged the American forces and serious injuries on the hundreds of miles of mountainous roads to the USSR were commonplace. Making their jobs even more consuming Lt. Edhegard's medical group had suffered its own wartime tragedy. The other plane transporting the half of the doctors and nurses from Eretria crashed in the rugged mountains outside Teheran and all on board had been killed. When Grace and her fellows learned that only their plane had landed safely she was stricken with a sadness that she would later term the worst of her life. The demands of WWII often proved lethal no matter which foreign theatre Army medical personnel were assigned.

Duty of course permitted little time for mourning and besides, each of the Americans had to work twice as hard as there were no other medical personnel to aid them for nearly a thousand miles. A system was quickly established to treat troops with an emphasis on helping the badly injured recover as fully as possible and getting the disease stricken well and back into the field. In the end, the convoys of trucks carrying supplies to the Russian army gradually gave the Soviets the firepower and supplies they needed to turn the tide against the German invaders. This year-long action by the American military went largely unacknowledged by Soviet leader Joseph Stalin. However, without it the entirety of World War II might have been different. And again, Lt. Edhegard and her fellow medical angels played an essential role in enabling American troops to keep doing their jobs month and after month.

Finally, nearly three years after she'd earned her commission, 1st Lt. Grace Edhegard was deployed back to the United States where after serving at the military hospital in Biloxi, Mississippi she was discharged just months before the Allied victory in Europe. Many of her friends and cohorts had died in the aforementioned plane crash and others had been felled by disease in Persia. However, the most important person to Grace Edhegard was alive and well, though he wouldn't be discharged until war's end. That person was Staff Sargent Simeon Smith, a medical technician that Grace had first met in Eritrea. At war's end the two were reunited in Biloxi where they married. Sgt. Smith would eventually become Warrant Officer Smith and would serve a total of 32 years in the US Army. By his side, now as civilian, Grace Edhegard Smith continued to work as a Registered Nurse including at Army medical facilities in West Germany from 1961-64.

Finally, nearly three years after she'd earned her commission, 1st Lt. Grace Edhegard was deployed back to the United States where after serving at the military hospital in Biloxi, Mississippi she was discharged just months before the Allied victory in Europe. Many of her friends and cohorts had died in the aforementioned plane crash and others had been felled by disease in Persia.

Grace Esther and Sim Smith, 1943.

However, the most important person to Grace Edhegard was alive and well, though he wouldn't be discharged until war's end. That person was Staff Sargent Simeon Smith, a medical technician that Grace had first met in Eritrea. At war's end the two were reunited in Biloxi where they married. Sgt. Smith would eventually become Warrant Officer Smith and would serve a total of 32 years in the US Army. By his side, now as civilian, Grace Edhegard Smith continued to work as a Registered Nurse including at Army medical facilities in West Germany from 1961-64.

Sadly, Simeon Smith died in 1975 at the age of just 58. Grace never remarried but she did continue serving others. She had gained a bachelor's degree in nursing from Bridgeport University in 1959 and Master's Degree in Psychiatric Nursing from the University of Florida in 1969. She then went on to work until her retirement for the Baldwin Country Mental Health Department which named a new addition to its main facility the “Grace Smith Wing.”

To sum up Grace Edhegard Smith's contributions to the US military is not easy, for they were considerable and did not end when she had officially concluded her Army service. In the end, she served US military personnel on four different continents, North America, Africa, Asia and Europe. While at heart she always remained an Alabama girl, she was willing to do whatever it took, wherever it took to render whatever help she could. She died in 2003 in Fairhope and is interred next to her husband in the Silverhill cemetery.

Written by Sim Smith, Jr.
January 2023

The submission is in support of honors for Grace Edhegard Smith of Silverhill who served honorably in the US Army Medical Corps during World War II and after that as a civilian nurse often in US Army medical facilities both domestic and foreign.

Click here to download a PDF of
the 1943 military journal of Esther Edhegard.

Silverhill Veterans Day Ceremony
to Honor WWII Nurse

On Saturday, Nov. 11, 2023, the Silverhill Veterans Memorial Organization will host a Veterans Day ceremony. They will be honoring World War II veteran Grace Edhegard Smith.

The Edhegard family moved to Silverhill in 1926. Grace Esther was the oldest of eight children. She graduated from Robertsdale High School at the age of 16 and then Birmingham School of Nursing.

After the attack on Pearl Harbor, the United States Army expanded the Women's Army Corps, and she immediately joined. She was commissioned a 2nd lieutenant and ordered to the North African theatre of World War II where she served for nearly three years.

Following her discharge from the Army, she married SSgt. Simeon Smith, a medical technician she had first met in Eritrea. He would eventually become Warrant Officer Smith and would serve 32 years in the U.S. Army. After his retirement from the Army in 1971, the Smiths moved home to Silverhill.

Grace went on to work until her retirement from the Baldwin County Mental Health Department as a psychiatric nurse. Always a student, she continued taking college courses and traveling abroad; however, her heart would always be in Silverhill, her home.

A full Veterans Day ceremony will be presented. Service will begin at 10 a.m. The memorial is located on the corner of Highway 104 and County Road 55, in Silverhill, Alabama. Please bring your own chair.

Written by Susan Smith Langley

Printed in
GULFCOASTMEDIA.COM
THE BALDWIN TIMES
FRIDAY, OCTOBER 27, 2023 page B5

Also printed in
SMALL TOWN NEWS
The official publication of the Town of Silverhill
NOVENBER 2023 VOL. 35

Silverhill Honors
WWII Veteran Nurse

Grace Edhegard Smith served in the military as a nurse. Throughout her military service, Smith would travel to North America, Europe, Asia and Africa, ensuring the well-being of individuals. It was during her time in the Army that she met her husband, Warrant Officer Simeon Smith. After his retirement in 1971, the couple settled in Silverhill. Photo by Natalie Williamson

Over 100 people gathered at the corner of Highway 104 and County Road 55 to honor veterans who have served our country, including a Silverhill citizen who spent her life serving others inside and outside the military.

A table at the Silverhill Veteran's Day ceremony shows photos of Grace Smith. She was a graduate of Robertsdale High School and the Birmingham School of Nursing and enlisted in the Women's Army Corps following the 1941 attack on Pearl Harbor. Photo by Natalie Williamson

Grace Edhegard Smith, a graduate of Robertsdale High School and the Birmingham School of Nursing, enlisted in the Women's Army Corps following the 1941 attack on Pearl Harbor.

Throughout her military service, Smith would travel to North America, Europe, Asia and Africa, ensuring the well-being of individuals. It was during her time in the Army that she met her husband, Warrant Officer Simeon Smith. After his retirement in 1971, the couple settled in Silverhill.

While living in Baldwin County, Smith worked at the Baldwin County Mental Health Department as a psychiatric nurse. She was said to have been eager to learn more, so much so that she continued taking college courses and traveling abroad.

During a ceremony on Nov. 11, the Silverhill Veterans Memorial Organization presented her family with a certificate.

The great-grandchildren along with other relatives of Grace Smith saying the pledge of allegiance at the Silverhill Veterans ceremony on Nov. 11, 2023. Photo by Natalie Williamson

"I can't tell you what an honor this is," said Simeon Smith Jr., the son of the late Grace and Simeon Smith. "Grace Edhegard Smith was quite literally conceived in service to others. While at heart she always remained an Alabama girl, she was willing to do whatever it took, wherever it took, to render whatever help she could."

Simeon Smith Jr., son of Grace Smith, accepting a certificate in honor of his mother. Grace Edhegard Smith, a graduate of Robertsdale High School and the Birmingham School of Nursing, enlisted in the Women's Army Corps following the 1941 attack on Pearl Harbor. Photo by Natalie Williamson

Smith Jr. said over 30 extended family members were present at the ceremony, traveling all over the nation from Minnesota, Florida and Wisconsin.

With the Peoples Supply building in the background, standing in the center of the crowd is Shelton Stephens, Jr. next to Shirley Stephens, Irma Lyrene, and Paul Lyrene, who were all part of the relatives of Grace Smith that gathered for the Silverhill Veterans Day ceremony on Nov. 11, 2023 in the center of town. Photo by Natalie Williamson

Silverhill Mayor Jared Lyles expressed pride in residing in a community that consistently finds ways to honor those who have served.

"The community has always had a very large support of the veterans in the veteran community," he said. "You can tell by the monument that we built that was built right in the middle of town."

An American flag was handed out to attendees at the Silverhill Veterans Day ceremony on Nov. 11, 2023. Photo by Natalie Williamson

The monument was funded by the Silverhill Veterans Organization and contains names of people who have served in the military who are from Baldwin County.

"I think it just shows the people around Silverhill understand that honoring veterans, honoring their sacrifice and their service," Lyles said, "is something that has always been and will always continue to be something that is extremely important to us."

Written by Natalie Williamson
Reporter
natalie@gulfcoastmedia.com

Printed in
GULFCOASTMEDIA.COM
The Onlooker
Wednesday, November 15, 2023 page B1

Read more about the
Silverhill Veterans Memorial.