Florence Standish: The nurse who helped build VA Care in Asheville

How her leadership during World War I helped lay the foundation for modern VA nursing practice

Long before today’s modern Veterans Health Administration, nurses formed the backbone of military and Veterans healthcare. Among them was Florence Standish, the first Chief Nurse at Army Hospital No. 19 in Oteen, North Carolina, the facility that would later become the VA Asheville Health Care System.

Her story, rediscovered through archival research and historical photography, illustrates how some women shaped America’s early Veterans care.

From archival mystery to historical recognition

For years, a photograph in the University of North Carolina at Asheville archives was labeled simply: “Unidentified woman, half-length portrait, wearing nurses’ uniform.”

Through careful comparison with a 1919 newspaper image of Army Hospital No. 19 staff, historians confirmed the identity of the woman as Florence Standish, the hospital’s first Chief Nurse.

Standish was born in Wilkes-Barre, Pennsylvania, in 1875. After attending a deaconess school in Washington, D.C., she completed formal nursing training in Minneapolis in 1905. By 1909, she had risen to Nurse Superintendent at a Methodist hospital in Colorado Springs.

Leading through war: Army Hospital No. 19

When the United States entered World War I, the military rapidly expanded its medical infrastructure. Army Hospital No. 19 in Oteen, North Carolina, became a key treatment center for soldiers recovering from illness and injury.

Standish was selected as Chief Nurse, placing her at the helm of nursing operations during a critical period of growth and demand. Her responsibilities would have included overseeing staff, maintaining clinical standards and ensuring patient care during a time when infection control and trauma recovery were still evolving sciences.

A contemporary Asheville newspaper in 1919 described her impact warmly: “She has been very active as head nurse… and become very popular with all her associates at the hospital and will leave a host of friends.”

Her leadership documents one of the earliest chapters in what would later become the Veterans Administration nursing service.

A lifelong commitment to care

After her tenure at Oteen, Standish returned to Colorado Springs, where she opened and operated a tuberculosis (TB) sanatorium, a critical public health service during an era when TB remained widespread and often fatal. Whether treating soldiers or civilians, Standish consistently stepped into areas of urgent need.

The rediscovery of Standish’s identity matters. Her story is not simply about one nurse; it reflects the broader, often underrecognized contributions of women in early federal healthcare systems.

Today, the Asheville VA stands as part of a nationwide system serving millions of Veterans. Behind that infrastructure are leaders like Florence Standish, professionals whose names may have faded from memory, but whose impact remains embedded in the institution itself.

As more archives are digitized and examined, additional stories like hers will continue to surface, enriching VA’s nursing heritage and honoring those who helped build it from the ground up.

Learn more about the history of Veteran care, and the women whose compassion, leadership and advocacy shaped it at every level.