Ella Thomas Whitten papers

Ella Thomas Whitten was born in Faber, Nelson County, Virginia on 7 February 1890, to William Thomas Whitten and Martha Ann Clements, and had nine brothers and sisters. In 1915 she graduated from the Davis-Fischer Sanatorium Training School of Atlanta, Georgia. When she was 27, she enlisted as a nurse in the United States Army Nurse Corps, and traveled overseas to serve in Blois, France, at Base Hospital No. 43, a unit sponsored by Emory University. She finished her service and returned to the United States in 1918. After the war, she received a certificate of commendation from the Graduate Nurses Association of Virginia for her service. She later attended the College of William and Mary, attaining a certificate in public health nursing from the School of Social Work and Public Health of the College of William and Mary in 1933, and graduating with a Bachelor of Science in Nursing in 1937. Whitten was a long-time member of the American National Red Cross and the Graduate Nurses Association of Virginia. She received an American Red Cross certificate for 50 years of service in 1967. In 1958 she married Dr. Carl Clinton; the couple lived in Lynchburg, Virginia. Dr. Clinton died 12 January 1969, and Ella Whitten Akers died 2 March 1984. Both are buried in Faber, Virginia.