Published April 25. 2018 12:00AM
The Military Nursing Corps of Pennsylvania VFW Post 12099, Allentown, recently honored Lehigh Valley native, Allentown School of Nursing graduate and our nation’s first woman general, Brig. Gen. Anna Mae Hays.
Hays died Jan. 7 in Virginia at the age of 97.
Post 12099 presented a $500 check toward the Brig. Gen. Anna Mae McCabe Hays Endowed Scholarship at Northampton Community College to support veterans majoring in nursing.
Joining the presentation were Catherine DeHart, planner and major gift officer at NCC Foundation, and Doris Kressly, Hays’ niece and the individual who established the endowment.
Kressly served as an adjunct professor at the college for many years.
Post 12099 is now petitioning the state and national VFWs to change the post’s name to the Brig. Gen. Anna Mae V. McCabe Hays VFW Post 12099.
Hays consented to this honor in 2009 when Post 12099 was founded.
Under VFW guidelines, a post cannot be named after a living person unless they are a Medal of Honor recipient.
PHOTO COURTESY of NCCCatherine DeHart, planner and major gift officer for the Northampton Community College Foundation; VFW members Joseph Zeller, who fought in World War II and Korea; Mark Konz, who served in Vietnam; Ron Mohr, who fought in Vietnam; Robert Greene; and Doris Kressly, niece of the late Brig. Gen. Anna Mae Hays, are pictured.
