Mary Theresa Bannon

No. 22060 Mary Theresa Bannon, The Boston Globe June 2, 1921

Mary Theresa Bannon by Camille Arbogast.

Mary Theresa Bannon was born in New Bedford, Massachusetts, to Ellen M. (Sheehan) and Patrick F. Bannon. Mary’s birth record states that she was born on May 5, 1893. Patrick, born in New York, was a stone cutter; Ellen had been born in New Bedford. Patrick and Ellen had eight other children: Annie born in 1894, Francis in 1896, William in 1897, Charles in 1898, Catherine in 1900, Joseph 1903, James 1905, and Helen in 1909. Francis died at 2 months old of broncho-pneumonia.

In 1900, the Bannon family was living at 11 Reynolds Street in New Bedford. Mary was attending school. Patrick was employed as an insurance agent. By 1910 they had moved to 5 Mount Pleasant Avenue. Mary was working in a cotton mill as a “spooler tender.” Her father had returned to his profession of stone cutter. Mary entered the employ of the City of Boston in September 1913, working in the Hospital Department. This was probably when she began studying at the Boston City Hospital School for Nurses. In February 1916, she was appointed a nurse at the Boston City Hospital with compensation of $200 a year. She graduated nursing school in May 1916.

On October 24, 1918, Mary enlisted in the Army Nurse Corps, her service card indicated that she was living at 7 Upham Street in Dorchester. She was assigned to Debarkation Hospital Number 1 on Ellis Island in New York Harbor. The hospital received wounded soldiers returning from Europe, preparing them for transfer to the general hospital nearest their homes. On April 24, 1919, Mary was transferred to Debarkation Hospital Number 3 in New York City, located in the former Siegel Cooper Department store building on Sixth Avenue, between 18th and 19th Streets. Nurses were housed in the Tromart Inn on 12th and Hudson, “formerly a hotel for working girls.” Mary remained at Debarkation Hospital 3 until her discharge on June 19, 1919. According to an article in the Boston Globe, “during the World War she served as a Red Cross nurse, and at one time was attached to the Haymarket Relief Hospital.” This may have been prior to her entry into the Army Nurse Corps.

In August 1919, Mary was appointed to the Boston Hospital Department as a head nurse, paid $50 a month. A week later she was transferred to “supply Xray attendant at $14 a week.” The 1920 census reported that Mary was living with her family at 228 State Street in New Bedford. She was employed as a nurse, while most of her family worked in the cotton mill, including her father. On December 16, 1920, Mary was appointed a temporary “special nurse” at Boston City Hospital, earning $30 a week.

By 1923, Mary was working for the recently formed Veterans’ Bureau, serving as the assistant chief nurse in Boston. That spring, Mary was one of a small group of nurses suspended for allegedly being a part of “dissension and conflict in the nurses’ station.” An investigating committee tasked with reviewing the suspensions returned her to her position “without comment.” Less than a month later, she was transferred to the subdistrict office in New Bedford. The Boston Globe reported that two weeks after her transfer she had not reported for duty, but had written the doctor in New Bedford “that she was ill, and would get to work as soon as she was capable of doing so.”

On November 12, 1923, Mary married Bernard Francis Devine, a physician on the staff of the Boston City Hospital and the assistant superintendent at the Haymarket Relief Station in Boston. Born in South Boston, Bernard had attended the Boston Latin School, Harvard University (Class of 1911), and Harvard Medical School (Class of 1915). Mary and Bernard were married at New Bedford’s Saint Mary’s Church by Reverend Charles F. Arnold. Another Dorchester girl, Dorothea Burke of Mayfield Street, was her maid of honor. After the wedding, they left for New York en route to Bermuda.

Mary and Bernard initially lived at 112 Brush Hill Road in Milton, Massachusetts. Bernard was promoted to resident surgeon at the Haymarket Relief Hospital in 1927 and his salary increased to $2,800. They moved to 125 Blue Hills Parkway in Milton, where the census recorded them in 1930. Mary was an active member of the Massachusetts All-Nurse Post of the American Legion. She and Bernard travelled, going to Bermuda again in 1926 and 1928, and to Nova Scotia in 1930. By the early 1940s, they were living at 98 Hemenway Street in Boston. All the while, Mary continued working as a nurse at the Boston City Hospital.

Bernard died suddenly at home on August 26, 1947. He had been the resident physician at the Haymarket Relief Hospital for 30 years before transferring to the East Boston Relief Hospital in the 1940s. Until at least 1960, Mary was still working as a nurse at Boston City Hospital; she was living on Massachusetts Avenue in an apartment near the hospital.

At the end of her life, Mary moved back to her hometown of New Bedford, where she was living on Elm Street. Mary died on September 15, 1971 when she was 78 years old. A High Mass of Requiem was celebrated for her at New Bedford’s Saint Lawrence Church. She was buried beside Bernard at Mount Calvary Cemetery in Roslindale, Massachusetts.

Researched and written by Camille Arbogast.

Sources

Massachusetts Vital Records, 1840–1911. New England Historic Genealogical Society, Boston, MA; Ancestry.com

1900, 1910, 1920, 1930 U.S. Federal Census; Ancestry.com

City Record: Official Publication of the City of Boston. Boston, MA: City of Boston, MA, 1913; HathiTrust.org

Boston City Council. Documents of the City of Boston for the Year 1916, Volume III. Boston, MA: City of Boston Printing Department, 1917; HathiTrust.org

“Fifty Get Diplomas at City Hospital Graduation,” Boston Globe, 27 May 1916; Newspapers.com

Military, Compiled Service Records. World War I. Carded Records. Records of the Military Division of the Adjutant General’s Office, Massachusetts National Guard.

Weed, Frank W. The Medical Department of the United States Army in the World War, Volume V: Military Hospitals in the United States. Washington, DC: Surgeon General’s Office, Government Printing Office, 1923; Archive.org

“Miss Mary Bannon Bride of Bernard F. Devine,” Boston Globe, 13 November 1923: 15; Newspapers.com

City Record: Official Publication of the City of Boston. Boston, MA: City of Boston, MA, 1919; Archive.org

Noble, George. “Restoration to Duty of Three Nurses in Veteran’s Bureau,” Boston Globe, 21 April 1923: 5; Newspapers.com

Noble, George. “More Changes in Local Veterans’ Bureau,” Boston Globe, 1 May 1923: 1; Newspapers.com

Noble, George, “More Trouble in Veterans’ Bureau,” Boston Globe, 16 May 1923: 2; Newspapers.com

“Massachusetts Marriages, 1841-1915,” database, citing Boston, Suffolk, MA, State Archives, Boston; FamilySearch.org

“Dr. Bernard Devine,” Boston Globe, 26 Aug 1947: 41; Newspapers.com

“Dr. Devine Promoted to Resident Surgeon,” Boston Globe, 12 February 1927: 5; Newspapers.com

“Nurses Hold Service at the State House,” Boston Globe, 30 May 1932: 15; Newspapers.com

Passenger Lists of Vessels Arriving at Boston, Massachusetts, 1891-1943. National Archives, Washington, D.C.; Ancestry.com

“New York, New York Passenger and Crew Lists, 1909, 1925-1957,” database, citing Immigration, New York, New York, NARA microfilm publication, Washington, D.C.: National Archives and Records Administration; FamilySearch.org

Passenger and Crew Lists of Vessels Arriving at New York, New York, 1897-1957. Microfilm Publication, Records of the Immigration and Naturalization Service; National Archives at Washington, D.C.; Ancestry.com

Social Security Administration. Social Security Death Index, Master File; Ancestry.com

“Death Notices,” Boston Globe, 16 September 1971: 39; Newspapers.com

Mary T. Bannon Devine, FindAGrave.com

Skills

Posted on

March 23, 2022

Submit a Comment

Your email address will not be published.