"When he [President Wilson] went out of that ward, he was just white as a sheet and he couldn't continue." (Audio Interview, Part 2, 9:24)

Clara Wilhelmina Emily Lewandoske Hoke

Clara Lewandoske Hoke during World War I War: World War, 1914-1918 Branch: Army Nurse Corps Service Location: France Rank: Lieutenant Place of Birth: WI

Clara Lewandoske had been a nurse for four years when the U.S. entered World War I, and she wasted little time in enlisting in the war effort. As she recalled in a 1971 self-interview, she was assigned to both field hospitals and a huge facility in Paris, where both General Pershing and President Wilson visited. At the time of Wilson's visit, she was working in the Jaw Ward, whose facially disfigured patients were a grim reminder of the effects of the war's high-powered weaponry. (In 1922, Clara married Arnold Hoke, another veteran of WWI whose collection is also in this feature.)