Hilda Louise Booterbaugh Stasik

Mary 11, 1923 - July 28, 1997

Ray Schaffranek writes: 

Hilda Louise Booterbaugh, my mother-in-law, served as a Cadet Nurse for three years during World War II.  She was born May 11, 1923, in Coupon, Pennsylvania, the middle daughter of Martin and Thelma (Donoughe) Booterbaugh. Hilda graduated from Woodbury High School, New Jersey, on June 11, 1941; attended Philadelphia School of Auditing; and graduated from Atlantic City Hospital School of Nursing on May 26, 1946. During World War II, she served in the U. S. Cadet Nurse Corps from July 1, 1943, to May 26, 1946, performing nursing duties at Fort Dix, New Jersey. Hilda married John Stasik of Coupon, Pennsylvania, in 1947, and in 1948 they gave birth to their only child, a daughter Susan, whom I married in 1969. Hilda’s husband-to-be received a Purple Heart for wounds he received on the morning of October 20, 1944, at Leyte Gulf as his amphibious assault craft helped secure the beachhead in advance of the landing of General Douglas MacArthur during the liberation of the Philippines.  From her start in Cadet nursing, Hilda went on to receive a degree in public school nursing from Indiana State Teachers College, Pennsylvania, on August 18, 1957. In subsequent years, she pursued graduate studies and attended professional development workshops at Columbia and Penn State Universities. Hilda retired from Greater Gallitzin Joint and Penn Cambria High Schools in Pennsylvania on June 3, 1988, after serving 35 years as a public school nurse. Hilda was a Registered Nurse in both Pennsylvania and New Jersey. She was a member of the Descendants of Civil War Veterans of Blair County, Pennsylvania, and a member of St. Joseph Catholic Church, Coupon, PA. Hilda Louise (Booterbaugh) Stasik passed away on July 28, 1997, after a nine-month battle with cancer and is buried next to her husband in St. Joseph Cemetery, Coupon, Pennsylvania.