Nancy Jane Leo, an army nurse, is the only woman to lie among the 5,076 soldiers at the Luxembourg American Cemetery.[i]

Nancy Jane Leo was born in Cumberland, Maryland on August 10, 1921. She was the daughter of Francis Patrick “Patsy” Leo[ii] and Mary Elizabeth Farrell Leo, both of Cumberland. She grew up with her sisters Angela Elizabeth Leo Lambert and Rosemary Leo Evans[iii] and a brother, Richard Patrick Leo.[iv] At the time Nancy was born, her father was working as a machinist’s helper.[v]

The family was not without its sorrows. A few years before Nancy’s birth, her parents lost a baby who was born and died on the same day in 1918 and in 1926, when Nancy was four years old, they lost a baby boy, Frances Patrick Leo, Jr. who also died on the day he was born.[vi]

By 1930, the two older sisters must have been great pals as Angela is 10 and Nancy is 8. Due to the loss of Frances, there is quite the space before a new baby arrived. Rosemary is just one years old and Richard is just an infant. With four children in the house, there was plenty to do and it isn’t surprising that Patsy’s mother, German-born Mary E. Leo, lived with them.[vii]

Her father changed careers and for most of his life he was a policeman for the city of Cumberland, Maryland.[viii] In 1930, he was a traffic policeman.[ix]

HER LIFE BEFORE MILITARY

The 1937-1938 school year at Catholic Girls’ Central High School is under way with a “group of good, healthy, tanned girls all eager to get down to brass tacks,” reports the Cumberland Sunday Times. As the school year kicks off, Nancy is elected class secretary[x] and is a member of the Sub-Deb Club.[xi]

During Book Week that year, as students portrayed characters they had met while reading, “the unfortunate Willie, from Seventeen was portrayed by Nancy Leo amid the unrestrained merriment of her classmates,” the Cumberland Sunday Times shared.[xii] The school year ended with Nancy attending a dance given by the alumnae at the Clary Club.[xiii]

Nancy graduated from Catholic Girls’ Central High School in 1939 as part of a class of 15. The graduation ceremony was part of a week of festivities including a reception, a Mass, a breakfast, a theater party, a Glee Club presentation, a banquet and dance and finally a poolside picnic.[xiv] Nancy was also there the night a graduation dance was held at Cottage Inn.[xv] During her high school years, she is mention in the paper attending many birthday parties for her circle of friends.[xvi]

OFF TO NURSING COLLEGE

By 1940, Nancy and her sister, Angela, are living as lodgers in the home of John and Flora Wickersham in Cumberland.[xvii] The girls had moved out to attend school. At home, sister, Rosemary, 10, and brother, Richard, 9, were at home with her parents. Patsy was now working as a patrolman.[xviii]

At that time, Nancy and Angela are in nursing school at the Allegany Hospital School of Nursing. In fact, Nancy makes the newspaper on November 23, 1939 as the Cumberland News reports her getting her tonsils out with the headline “No Football Cheers from Four Nurses.” Nancy Jane Leo is described as one of the four pretty student nurses, the reporter states won’t be eating much turkey nor cheering for football as they had their tonsils out. It was stated that the nurses chose a weekend for the surgery in order to not miss any classes.[xix]

As most young ladies, she must have had fun with her nursing school chums. In January of 1940, she’s one of a large group of young people at the annual dance held at the Knights of Columbus hall with Marty Flynn and his Society Ramblers providing the swinging tunes.[xx] In February, she’s dancing to the Mountain City Ramblers of Frostburg at a Valentine’s Party given by the Junior Extension 4-H Club.[xxi] In May, she again makes the newspaper social column by attending the Senior Prom of LaSalle Institute High School.[xxii] In the summer, she’s with a group of nurses enjoying themselves at a cottage on Town Creek as they were hosted by Dr. and Mrs. Charles C. Zimmerman.[xxiii]

The following summer, 1941, Nancy’s the featured singer at Mary Sullivan’s wedding. A classmate and friend of both Angela and Nancy, Angela is the maid of honor.[xxiv] Later in the summer, Nancy’s off with friend Ann Hast and Julia Seymour to Virginia Beach.[xxv] But it wasn’t all fun and games that year in nursing school. Nancy also spent three months studying psychiatry in Baltimore before being picked up by her father and brother for a return to Cumberland.[xxvi]

In between studying during the final year of nursing college and the social activities of a 21-year-old, things are not so good back home. Her father, Officer Patsy Leo, badge number six, is considered a polite and helpful officer[xxvii] however he is in poor health. He is “furloughed indefinitely” because of he is not well. At a city council meeting, a report was read by a local doctor that recommended “extensive rest” for the officer. The council agreed to pay Patsy $50 a month during his disability.[xxviii]

As Nancy heads toward the end of nursing school, she celebrates with her fellow senior nurses at a picnic held at Roberts Place. Before the picnic supper, the women enjoy tennis, badminton and other contests complete with prizes.[xxix] The Junior Class of the nursing school held a theater party and refreshments attended by Nancy.[xxx]

Nancy passed her Maryland State Board exams[xxxi] and graduates in 1942, following the footsteps of her sister, Angela, who had graduated in [xxxii]1940. The new nurses were honored at a banquet at the Algonquin Hotel.[xxxiii]

Nancy takes a job as a registered nurse at the City Hospital in Baltimore, taking time from her duties occasionally to visit home.[xxxiv]

HER MILITARY STORY

Her sister, Angela Leo, enlisted as an army nurse on October 1, 1942.[xxxv] She first served at Walter Reed Hospital in Washington D.C.[xxxvi] and then was serving at the Woodrow Wilson Memorial Hospital in Staunton, Virginia.[xxxvii]

Nancy was soon to follow. She also became a member of the Army Nurse Corp[xxxviii], her service number was N-760422.[xxxix] She received word to report to Camp Crockett, Texas near Galveston along with fellow classmate and nurse Eleanor Kliffner on March 22, 1943.[xl] She was first in Texas and then transferred to Anniston, Alabama.[xli] In May, 1943, Nancy was one of the medical personnel honored at a mass said in her hometown for doctors and nurses serving in the military.[xlii] She was one of 43 nurses from her community serving the war effort.[xliii]

In November of 1943, both sisters were able to leave their duties for a visit with their parents in Cumberland.[xliv]

Nancy was attached to the 216th General Hospital, [xlv] which was formed at Camp Forrest in Tennessee. Nancy was one of the nurses who left the United States in March of 1944 with the hospital[xlvi]. In July of 1944, both Angela and Nancy would have received word of the passing of their father, Patsy, at age 51[xlvii] at a Baltimore hospital. Fellow police officers were his pall bearers.[xlviii]

Despite the loss, Nancy had to continue with her unit. Nancy’s hospital moved from Grenock, Scotland to Longleat, Warminster in Wiltshire, England and then on to Le Havre, France in June of 1945.[xlix] This put Nancy about 200 kilometers from her sister Angela who was a First Lieutenant[l] nurse stationed in Paris[li] after serving three months in Germany.[lii]

Nancy was at a big hospital. In November of 1944, it had 877 patients. Some patients had been in as many as nine hospitals prior to the 216th and many of the patients were neuropsychiatric. A great deal of surgery was done on the wounded.[liii]

HER LAST DAY – July 24, 1945

On July 23, Nancy made arrangements to visit her sister in Paris as Angela was stationed at the 66th Field Hospital Unit.[liv] She telephoned Angela and made plans to meet her.

The next day, Angela waited on her sister’s arrival. As Angela waited, the Jeep Nancy was riding in was forced off the road by a civilian car experiencing a tire blow-out[lv]. In the accident, Nancy sustained a major head injury and died before she reached emergency care in a hospital. Angela was notified that there was an accident involving a group of nurses. Her sister had been killed and two other nurses were injured.[lvi]

Before any official channels of communication could reach the family about Nancy’s death, word-of-mouth carried the news to her home all the way from Paris. Another resident of Cumberland, Mrs. Johnson of Baltimore Avenue, received a letter from her own son. In that letter, he shared that he had seen the grave of Lieutenant Nancy Leo in France. The letter said that the son had been riding past the cemetery when he saw a grave covered in “an abundance of beautiful flowers that attracted his attention.” He then discovered the grave was that of fellow Cumberland resident, Nancy Leo. This distressing news prompted Mrs. Johnson to reach out to Mary Elizabeth Leo, who with that call learned the news of her daughter’s death.[lvii]

The news of her death was also carried to Maryland in the contents of a sad letter from her sister, First Lieutenant Angela Leo. Angela wrote the letter to her aunt, Ruth Atwell. Even though she had the letter, sister Ruth decided to hold onto the letter and not share the contents until a confirming letter from the War Department arrived. After Mrs. Johnson’s phone call, Ruth revealed the letter she held to her sister Mary Elizabeth. The War Department letter did arrive and confirmed what the family already knew.[lviii]

She was 24.

COMMENDATIONS

Nurse Corps Badge

World War II Victory Medal

American Campaign Medal

Army Presidential Unit Citation

Army Good Conduct Medal

European-African-Middle Eastern Campaign[lix]

MEMORIALS

2020: In May of 2020, in a social media live broadcast that was an “atypical ceremony and without an audience because of Covid- 19” pandemic, the Embassy of the United States of America remembered Nancy Jane Leo.

American Ambassador J. Randolph Evans reminded everyone to remember the 5,075 men and 1 woman buried at the Luxembourg cemetery.

While he spoke of the memory of everyone, in the midst of a pandemic he especially evoked Second Lieutenant Nancy Jane Leo, a nurse. His remarks were shared in Luxembourg news at Lux24.com.

Ambassador Evans said, "She was an exceptional woman and in this current context we should pay tribute and remember with such importance as General Patton, also buried here.”

In reminding listeners of the frontline heroes of the Covid war, he said "The Second lieutenant Nancy Leo was one of the frontline heroines of that time, a nurse fighting every day in the service of her country.”

"We must remember it, as well as all our soldiers, who fought in World War II," said Ambassador Evans.[lx]

1946: The Allegany Hospital Nurses Alumnae Association gives the first Nancy Leo Memorial Scholarship in honor of their member killed in Paris France in 1945.[lxi]

HER GRAVE

Nancy Jane Leo is buried in the Luxembourg American Cemetery in the city of Luxembourg, Luxembourg.[lxii] A beautiful service was held in Paris.”[lxiii] She was first buried in Paris[lxiv] but later moved to Luxembourg and her grave can be found at Plot H, Row 9, Grave 71. [lxv]

Angela Leo was given an emergency leave and was able to fly home to spend time with her mother who now was raising her little sister and brother alone.

AFTER THE WAR

Nancy’s sister, First Lieutenant Angela Leo Lambert, survived the war, returned to her hometown of Cumberland, Maryland then married a man with the same name as her dad, Francis Patrick. They had a family and she lived to age 73.[lxvi]

READ AND LEARN MORE

Read about Luxembourg / USA / Memorial Day: Ambassador Evans evoked Nancy Leo, the only woman buried in the American Cemetery in Hamm.

ABOUT THIS STORY

This story is part of the Stories Behind the Stars project (see

www.storiesbehindthestars.org). This is a national effort of volunteers to write the stories of all 400,000+ of the US WWII fallen here on Fold3. Can you help write these stories? Related to this, there will be a smart phone app that will allow people to visit any war memorial or cemetery, scan the fallen's name and read his/her story.