Kathryn Georgette Van Wagner Pribram – Lieutenant, United States Navy

From a contemporary press report:

Kathryn Van Wagner Pribram, 77, who served in the Pacific as a World War II Navy nurse and later was night supervisor of the former Circle Terrace Hospital in Alexandria, died of emphysema February 9, 1999. She lived in Alexandria, Virginia.

Mrs. Pribram was a graduate of the St. Luke’s Hospital nursing school in her native New York. She also studied nursing at Johns Hopkins University.

After training in the Navy’s initial flight nurse instructional program, she served in Guam, where she helped evacuate American POWs. In 1945, she helped evacuate wounded Marines from Iwo Jima.

She survived the downing of one plane that was hit by enemy fire over water. Her honors included two Air Medals and the Navy Commendation Medal.

Mrs. Pribram remained in the Navy Reserve until 1951. Married in 1947 to Army officer Otto Pribram, she accompanied him to assignments in New Jersey, where she worked as an emergency room nurse and night supervisor, and to Yugoslavia and Bulgaria, where she served as an embassy nurse. They moved to Washington in 1973, and she retired from Circle Terrace 10 years later.

In addition to her husband, a retired colonel, survivors include two children, Janice Gutierrez and Karl J. Pribram, both of Alexandria, and two grandchildren.


PRIBRAM, KATHRYN GEORGETTE

On February 9, 1999, in Alexandria Hospital, KATHRYN G. PRIBRAM, wife of Otto Pribram, COL, USA (ret.); mother of Janice Gutierrez and Karl J. Pribram. Also survived by a stepsister, Dianne Kupka; and two grandchildren, Jay and Kristina Gutierrez. Funeral services will be held Monday, February 22, Ft. Myer Old Post Chapel at 11 a.m. Interment Arlington National Cemetery.

Read our general and most popular articles

Leave a Comment