Frances Bridget (Mullane) Keeton was born 6 April 1878 in Clonmel County Tipperary, Ireland. She was a nurse who served during both World Wars. She received a Victory Medal for service in World War I. This medal is still in the family.
In July 1918 Frances was living at 440 East 26th Street in New York City. She got a letter from the Office of the Surgeon General, the War Department. The letter said,
The Surgeon General directs me to inform you that you have been appointed a nurse in the Army Nurse Corps, and that you are by the terms of your appointment to enter upon your duties there under after taking the oath of office.
Sometime between 1924 and 1944 Frances married Franklin Keeton. The marriage did not last. She had no children. Frances died in April 1946. She was buried on 30 April 1946 at the Gate of Heaven Cemetery in Hawthorne, New York in the same plot as her older sister, Mary Josephine (Mullane) Coyle. Her name is engraved on a tombstone in Ireland with her parents.
Selected Sources:
- Letter from Lt. Colonel Bert W. Caldwell (War Department, Office of Surgeon General, Washington) to Frances Mullane (440 East 26th Street, New York City, New York) 9 July 1918.
- Diploma of Registered Nurse for Frances Mullane, # 1259, 21 June 1920, The Texas State Board of Nurse Examiners.
- Letter from Major Julia Stimson (War Department, Office of Surgeon General, Washington) 3 March 1924.
- 1930 United States Census, Manhattan, New York, SD 23, ED 31-639, Sheet 1B, Line 87. Frances Keeton at Metropolitan Hospital on Welfare Island.
- Letter from Chairman, Ruth G. Hall. RN (War Manpower Commission, 353 Broadway, Albany, New York) to Mrs. Frances Keeton, RN (Metropolitan Hospital, Welfare Island, New York) 5 September 1944.
- Certificate of Merit for Frances Keeton, 21 October 1944, The City of New York, Department of Hospitals, City of New York.
- American Legion Post #344, 315 Lexington Avenue, New York Membership Card for Mrs. Frances Keeton, 1945.