Growing up in the Rio Grande Valley in Texas, Lorine Cochran Wolf, 96, knew there were not many career opportunities open to women.
“You could be a secretary, nurse or teacher,” said Wolf, who has lived in Perryville since 1982. “I chose to be a nurse … later, a nurse anesthetist.”
At age 23 — during World War II — Wolf joined the Army so she could fulfill her dream. The Army helped move her along the path to her dream career, but the Air Force gave her that final push.
“I had to take nurse’s training first before I could join the Army,” said Wolf, who graduated from Alamo High School in Pharr, Texas, in 1941. She graduated as a registered nurse from McAllen Hospital School of Nursing in McAllen, Texas, in 1944. She was employed at McAllen Hospital as supervisor of the obstetrical ward from October 1944 until February 1945.
She joined the Army in March 1945 as a nurse. She completed four weeks of basic military training for nurses at Camp Carson in Colorado. She served at O’Reilly General Hospital in Springfield, Missouri, from April to June 1945 prior to going overseas. She was a charge nurse and a ward nurse in the neurosurgery ward.
Wolf served overseas in the Philippines and in Japan during World War II. Her duty stations included the 80th General Hospital in Manila, where she was a ward nurse in the hepatitis ward; the 117th Station Hospital in Leyte, where she was a ward nurse in the surgical, medical and orthopedic wards; and the 128th and 334th station hospitals in Japan, where she was a ward nurse and a scrub nurse in the operating room.
She was discharged from the Army as a first lieutenant on June 4, 1946. She was awarded the Philippine Liberation Ribbon, the Asiatic-Pacific Theatre Ribbon and the Victory Medal for her service in World War II.
“In the Army, I did work some in field hospitals,” she said. “They shipped them in and out like they were on cattle cars. I was never in the line of fire.
“I remember once in Japan, a prisoner escaped. He was real, real young.”
Wolf returned to Arkansas after serving 13 months in the Army and was a night charge nurse at Clarksville General Hospital from 1946 until 1951.
“I had always wanted to be a nurse anesthetist,” she said. “The Army did not offer that, so later, I joined the Air Force.”
Wolf joined the Air Force in 1951 and was discharged with the rank of major on July 12, 1963. During that time, she received her training as a nurse anesthetist at Minneapolis (Minnesota) General Hospital in 1953 and spent several years as a nurse anesthetist with the 48th Tactical Hospital, 48th Tactical Fighter Wing, United States Air Forces in Europe, stationed at Royal Air Force Lakenheath in Suffolk, England.
Her Air Force commendations include the National Defense Service Medal and the Air Force Longevity Service Award with two bronze Oak Leaf Clusters.
“I was a general-duty staff nurse and a staff nurse anesthetist,” she said of her Air Force service. “I loved England. The food was bland, but I loved going to the live plays at the theaters.”
Wolf continued her nurse-anesthetist career for several years after getting out of the Air Force. She worked in Portland, Oregon, and outlying area hospitals from 1963-65; at Virginia Mason Hospital in Seattle, Washington, from 1967-68; and at McMinnville General Hospital in McMinnville, Oregon, from 1971-74.
She also attended Bellevue Community College in Bellevue, Washington, from 1969 to 1970.
Wolf was born Sept. 27, 1922, in Yellville, one of 12 children of the late Robert and Ruth Cochran. Five of those children are still living.
When Wolf was a child, the family moved to Texas, where her father operated a cannery in the Rio Grande Valley.
Wolf was twice married and divorced. She was married first to the late Albert F. Morgan, who was a dentist in the Air Force and was stationed in England; they divorced in 1971. She married her second husband, the late Julius Wolf, in 1974.
At one time, she and her second husband operated a restaurant at The Dalles, which sits on the Columbia River dividing Washington and Oregon.
Wolf moved from Oregon to Perryville in 1982 to take care of her mother in Clarksville.
In 1985, she became part owner with her brother, Ernest Cochran, of the Cedar Falls Motel on Petit Jean Mountain. She helped operate the motel for 20 years; her brother still owns it.
Wolf has one daughter, Karen Fowler, 53, who moved to Perryville from Montana in 2015 to help care for Wolf. Fowler has four children — Kira Doroski, 34, who lives in Little Rock; Keisha Metz, 32, who lives in Hood River, Oregon; Kevin Doroski, 30, who lives with his wife, Jaymee, and their 8-month-old son, Pepper in Little Rock; and Dakota Fowler, 23, who has just moved from Montana to Perryville, with his girlfriend, Lekeisha, and their two children, Delilah, 2, and Hendrix, 1.
Wolf now has some heath issues and depends more and more on her daughter for help.
“I’m just ‘at leisure’ around the house. Seems like there is always something going on. I go when I can,” she said.
“The VA (Veterans Affairs) has been a lifesaver for me,” Wolf said, noting that she goes to both facilities in Little Rock and North Little Rock, as well as the clinic in Conway. “They have been really good to me.”
Wolf was recently presented with a commemorative coin from the Central Arkansas Veterans Healthcare System in Little Rock. She was featured on the VA Facebook page on Oct. 12.
Wolf said she regrets not staying in the military another few years so she could draw retirement.
“I was promoted to a major in 1961, which was really just a ‘paper’ promotion,” she said. “I was discharged in 1963, but I did not retire.”
Wolf is a member of Perryville United Methodist Church, which will honor her and other veterans in a tribute this morning at church.
Fowler told visitors recently that she hoped to be able to take her mother to the Veterans Day service.
Fowler said her mother was active in church and other community events in recent years.
“Mom did Meals on Wheels several years ago,” Fowler said. “She got involved with it through the church. It is the Meals on Wheels through the senior center. She and a friend of hers would always do it together. They enjoyed it. It kept them busy, and they enjoyed getting out and seeing people.
“I volunteered [with the program] after I moved here because the church needed volunteers. Mom likes to go with me when she is able. She keeps the clipboard and tells me where to go. She still enjoys it.”