Gertrude Evelyn Noone (December 30, 1898 – September 10, 2009) was an American supercentenarian and also the oldest American

military veteran A veteran () is a person who has significant experience (and is usually adept and esteemed) and expertise in a particular occupation or field. A military veteran is a person who is no longer serving in a military. A military veteran that h ...

until she died in September 2009. At death, she was the oldest military veteran in the world, having served in World War II as a clerk in

Fort Myer Fort Myer is the previous name used for a U.S. Army post next to Arlington National Cemetery in Arlington County, Virginia, and across the Potomac River from Washington, D.C. Founded during the American Civil War as Fort Cass and Fort Whipple, ...

, an army base in

Virginia Virginia, officially the Commonwealth of Virginia, is a state in the Mid-Atlantic and Southeastern regions of the United States, between the Atlantic Coast and the Appalachian Mountains. The geography and climate of the Commonwealth ar ...

Biography

Gertrude Noone was born in

Ansonia, Connecticut Ansonia is a city in New Haven County, Connecticut, United States. Located on the Naugatuck River, it is immediately north of Derby, and about northwest of New Haven. The population was 18,918 at the time of the 2020 census. The ZIP code for ...

on December 30, 1898. She was the ninth of her family's ten children. Noone, who never married, worked as an insurance policy clerk for The Travelers. She left her job to enlist in 1943 in the

Women's Army Corps The Women's Army Corps (WAC) was the women's branch of the United States Army. It was created as an auxiliary unit, the Women's Army Auxiliary Corps (WAAC) on 15 May 1942 and converted to an active duty status in the Army of the United States ...

during World War II when she was 44 years old. While enlisted in the Corps, Noone became the chief clerk of the dispensary at

, near Washington D.C. She rose within the Corps to the rank of sergeant first class by the time she left the United States Army in 1949. She returned to the private sector, where she worked as an administrative assistant at a psychiatric hospital in Stamford, Connecticut, until her retirement in 1962. The honorary title of oldest known living military veteran passed to Gertrude Noone on July 25, 2009, following the death of British World War I veteran

Harry Patch Henry John Patch (17 June 1898 – 25 July 2009), dubbed in his later years "the Last Fighting Tommy", was an English supercentenarian, briefly the oldest man in Europe, and the last surviving trench combat soldier of the First World War from ...

. Gertrude Noone died at the Carriage Green assisted living facility in

Milford, Connecticut Milford is a coastal city in New Haven County, Connecticut, United States, located between New Haven and Bridgeport. The population was 50,558 at the 2020 United States Census. The city includes the village of Devon and the borough of Woodmon ...

, on September 10, 2009, aged 110. She was buried with full military honors at Mount St. Peter's Cemetery in

Derby Derby ( ) is a city and unitary authority area in Derbyshire, England. It lies on the banks of the River Derwent in the south of Derbyshire, which is in the East Midlands Region. It was traditionally the county town of Derbyshire. Derby g ...

, Connecticut.

References

External links

Connecticut PostHartford CourantNew Haven RegisterValley Gazette
{{DEFAULTSORT:Noone, Gertrude 1898 births 2009 deaths People from Ansonia, Connecticut Military personnel from Connecticut American supercentenarians United States Army non-commissioned officers Women's Army Corps soldiers Women supercentenarians 21st-century American women

Biography

See also

References

External links