Issue link: https://viewer.e-digitaledition.com/i/807429
24 April 6 • 2017 jn Remembering a woman who felt called to serve after Pearl Harbor. C apt. Ethel Shilmover Grossman of Southfield — wife, mother, grandmother, devoted registered nurse, community leader and decorated WWII veteran — passed away at age 95 on March 13. Born in Baltimore, Md., on Aug. 19, 1921, Ethel was the eldest of four children of Celia and Israel Shilmover. Israel was a veteran of WWI. Ira Kaufman Chapel in Southfield is helping coordinate Ethel's May 4 inter- ment in Arlington National Cemetery, which will include an official flag- folding ceremony and bugler. Ethel will then be laid to rest beside her beloved husband, Lt. Col. Manuel A. Grossman of Detroit, who preceded her in death on March 6, 1994, at age 84. Husband and wife, both proud veterans of our Greatest Generation, will finally be reunited. While researching the life of Capt. Grossman, it became abundantly clear I was writing more than just the final chapter of a life well lived. Instead, the more I learned, the more I felt I was blowing the dust off a treasured history book filled with experiences deserving more of a screenplay than a column. It's a remarkable story of courage, sacrifice, love, and an unbridled devotion to one's family and country. From an early age, Ethel was a trail- blazer. In 1942, she became the first Jewish graduate at what was an all- Catholic school: Baltimore's St. Agnes School of Nursing. Proving she wasn't interested in the path of least resis- tance, Ethel put on hold any career ambitions, and instead shocked her parents by applying for the Army Nurse Corps. Her younger brother, the late Samson, was already in the Navy in part of the same China-Burma-India theater of war his sister would soon be serving in. The Shilmovers would proudly display an official service banner at their home, highlighted by two silver stars that sig- nified how many family members were serving overseas. In January 2008, Ethel was inter- viewed by Vietnam veteran Daniel Brightwell, then chairperson of the Southfield Veterans' Commission and now a Southfield City Council mem- ber. The interview is now part of the American Folklife Center of the Library of Congress. In the interview, Ethel explained the impact the bombing of Pearl Harbor had on her decision to enlist. "After Pearl Harbor, I felt very patri- otic. I felt [the service] was where I belonged," she said then. Determined to serve, Ethel, then 20, admitted she had to say she was 21 to qualify. No one in authority chose to corroborate her story, paving the way for her entry into the Army Nurse Corps. On May 26, 1942, following an abbre- viated training period, newly commis- sioned 2nd Lt. Ethel Shilmover set off on a dangerous journey across the Pacific to Fiji. She described the ominous voy- age for the 1994 edition of Michigan Jewish History, published by the Jewish Historical Society of Michigan: "The Battle of Midway and the Coral Sea were in progress when we left San Francisco. We zig-zagged 17 days through treacherous Pacific waters to reach the Fiji Islands in a large convoy, which included troop ships, destroyers, cruisers and airplane carriers. One of our pastimes on board was to watch jews d in the Alan Muskovitz Contributing Writer Military Trailblazer ABOVE: Ethel Shilmover before her marriage and during her time in the Army; Ethel received rec- ognition for her work on the Southfield Veterans' Commission in 2013. LEFT: Ethel and Manuel Grossman. They met in in Fiji, where they were serving in the same unit. continued on page 26