The world will finally give its thanks to Emily L. Simmonds, whoseashes have lain forgotten in an unmarked grave in Pomona for 40years.
That historical wrong will finally be corrected on Thursday atPomona Valley Memorial Park.
Through the determined work of two women - one in Scotland, one inPasadena - a special ceremony will be held at 11 a.m. at thecemetery. There, a marker will be unveiled commemorating the life ofSimmonds, who worked under insufferable conditions as a nurse to helpso many during World War I and its aftermath.
The two women, Louise Miller of Edinburgh, Scotland, and PattiFrench, of Pasadena, have taken up the crusade to ensure thatknowledge of Simmonds' many acts of heroism did not disappear withthe burial of her ashes.
Miller is writing a book about women who toiled in horridconditions in medical facilities during World War I. During herresearch, information about Simmonds has been hard to come by,especially between the war's end and her death at Los Angeles County-USC Medical Center on Feb. 18, 1966.
French, a writer and wife of Jack French, interim CEO of the SanGabriel Pomona Valley chapter of the Red Cross, got involved afterreading a column I wrote about Simmonds in April 2005. Shecorresponded with Miller and began her own research into Simmonds andher latter years in Southern California.
That quest hasn't been easy because the path taken by Simmonds, aresident of Chino for the last four years of her life, has been hardto trace.
She was a 26-year-old nurse on vacation in Paris in 1914 when warbroke out in Europe. She would volunteer and then spend the rest ofthe decade as a Red Cross nurse mostly in the Balkans performing oneselfless act after another.
After endless weeks of work in poorly supplied hospitals caringfor war victims in Serbia, she was sent to the United States on amercy mission. When she returned with tons of medical supplies, shefound a typhoid epidemic had broken out in the region.
"She was told she would be dead in a month if she continued oninto the 'death trap of Serbia,' but paid no attention to thewarnings," Miller told me last year. Conditions got all the worsewhen the doctors there were felled by the epidemic.
"Emily took charge of the (operating) theater, carrying outoperations as best she could on gangrenous limbs."
Her exploits didn't stop there. She accompanied refugees on shipsthrough submarine-infested waters, providing leadership and medicalcare when both were in short supply.
When the war ended, her trail becomes less clear. She ran achildren's camp and helped the Red Cross repatriate residents inEurope. Simmonds worked with both the Red Cross and Quaker relieforganizations in the 1920s, even going to Russia at one time.
She doesn't reappear until the 1950s, when she was listed asliving with a friend in Pasadena. Finally in 1962 she moved to a homeon Monte Vista Avenue in Chino, but what brought her there is stillunknown.
After a fall in Pasadena in which she broke her right hip,Simmonds was hospitalized at County-USC in Los Angeles, where shedied at age 77 of pneumonia.
Her 1966 obituary in the Ontario Daily Report was a bare threeparagraphs long and summarized her whole life merely as a "Red Crossnurse." Simmonds never married and had no family. Melody Baxter,general manager of the memorial park, said she had apparentlyarranged to be cremated but no stone was ordered and her ashes wereburied without a marker.
On Thursday, a memorial stone with Simmonds' photo on it and paidfor by Miller will be placed next to the Veterans Circle at thememorial park.
Both Miller, who will fly in from Scotland for the 11 a.m.ceremony, and the Frenches will attend, as well as other Red Crossofficials.
A priest from St. Sava Serbian Orthodox Church in San Gabriel willoffer a Serbian spiritual remembrance during the ceremony,recognizing Simmonds' service to the people of the Balkans.
Through the efforts of French and Miller, Simmonds' achievementsare now listed on the American Red Cross' Internet Museum notingremarkable Red Cross workers.
When I corresponded with Miller last year, she made it clear whyshe was so passionate about researching Emily Simmonds: "She doesn'tdeserve to be forgotten."
Joe Blackstock writes on Inland Valley history. He can be reachedby e-mail at j_blackstock@dailybulletin.com or by calling (909) 483-9382.
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