Earleen Allen Francis was born on November 3, 1908. She was a native of Bardwell, KY. Earleen served in the US Army Nurse Corps as a Second Lieutenant during World War II. She was one of the "Angels of Bataan and Corregidor” – the US Army and Navy Nurse Corps women who served in the Battle of the Philippines in 1941-42. When Bataan and Corregidor fell, 11 Navy nurses, 66 army nurses, and 1 nurse-anesthetist were captured and imprisoned in and around Manila. They continued to serve as nurses in various POW camps until they were finally liberated in February 1945.

Francis' friends say she was scarred by her captivity and worked only infrequently after she returned to the United States. She was married briefly to Garnet Francis, an Army dentist she met in the Philippines.

Earleen suffered from Alzheimer's disease, had no family. She lived with a caregiver in Clinton after residing for several years in Paducah. She died on September 15, 2002 at the age of 93 in Clinton, Kentucky and is now buried in the Clinton Cemetery, Clinton, Hickman County, Kentucky, USA. Earleen is mentioned in two books about the POW camp: "To the Angels" by Denny Williams (1985) and "We Band of Angels" by Elizabeth N. Norman (1999).

Source of information: www.findagrave.com