Second Lieutenant US Army, Margaret Elizabeth Bilyeu Parsons

Born: December 23, 1919
Died: September 6, 2012

Second Lieutenant Bilyeu Parsons joined the US Army Corps of Nurses in 1939. She had attained her nursing degree at the Ohio Valley Nursing School and worked out of the Ohio Valley General Hospital in Wheeling, Virginia before being stationed in Indiana.^{1, 2, 3} There she met Sergeant First Class Jack Parsons, and they were married on 31 January 1942, and as was the accepted practice at the time, Bilyeu Parsons applied for and was granted an honorable discharge despite the war.⁴

Margaret Elizabeth Bilyeu Parsons was born on December 23, 1919, to Emmett and Beryl Massey Bilyeu in Powhatan Point, Ohio. She grew up in St. Clairsville, Ohio, graduating from high school there.⁵ After her marriage, Bilyeu Parsons moved around as her husband served in the US Army, giving birth to their daughter in Washington state in 1944. Sergeant Parsons was honorable discharged in 1946 but joined again in 1948 with the Korean Conflict looming.⁶ For the next ten years Bilyeu Parsons followed her husband as he served all over America, except when on active duty in Korea, even going with him to Germany.^{7, 8} Very few Americans give credit to the sacrifices that the spouses of our service personnel make so that their spouse can serve the nation. These were sacrifices Bilyeu Parsons was prepared to make, including putting her career on hold until Sergeant Parsons retired in 1958 and they moved to Albuquerque.

Once in Albuquerque, Bilyeu Parsons took a job as a nurse at Sandia Base, later known as Kirtland Air Force Base.⁹ In 1973, she became one of only three Nurse Practitioners at Kirtland, working in the OB-GYN area where she was popular with the women on the base because “serving others, making life better, and calming fears, was her goal in the job she loved so dearly.”¹⁰ Retiring from Kirtland in 1982, she taught prenatal classes and served as a volunteer on the local Community Corrections Panel with the State Department of Corrections.¹¹ During the Gulf War in 1991, she was interviewed by a local TV station where she created a sensation when she demanded “that the United States Army should send her to Saudi Arabia instead of a younger nurse who may have to leave a family behind if activated.”¹²

Margaret Elizabeth Bilyeu Parsons died 6 September 2012.

Images & Documents

Obituary

Notes:

1. “Parsons, Margaret E.” Albuquerque Journal: Obituaries. 12 September 2012. sec. C p. 3.
2. “Parsons/Bilyeu” Indiana Archives and Records Administration; Indianapolis, IN, USA; Records of Marriage 1961-2005; Roll Number: 46.
3. “Bilyeu” Year: 1940; Census Place: Wheeling, Ohio, West Virginia; Roll: m-t0627-04436; Page: 17A; Enumeration District: 35-2.
4. “Parsons, Margaret E.” Albuquerque Journal: Obituaries. 12 September 2012. sec. C p. 3.
5. “Margaret Bilyeu.” U.S., School Yearbooks, 1880-2012; School Name: St. Clairsville High School; Year: 1937. And “Parsons, Margaret E.” Albuquerque Journal: Obituaries. 12 September 2012. sec. C p. 3.
6. “Parsons, Jack G.” Ancestry.com. U.S., Department of Veterans Affairs BIRLS Death File, 1850-2010 [database on-line]. Provo, UT, USA: Ancestry.com Operations, Inc., 2011.
7. “Parsons, Margaret E.” Albuquerque Journal: Obituaries. 12 September 2012. sec. C p. 3.
8. “Parsons, Margaret.” The National Archives in Washington, DC; Washington, D.C.; Series Title: Passenger and Crew Manifests of Airplanes Arriving At Newark, New Jersey; NAI Number: A4112; Record Group Title: Records of the Immigration and Naturalization Service, 1787-2009; Record Group Number: 85.
9. “Parsons, Margaret E.” Albuquerque Journal: Obituaries. 12 September 2012. sec. C p. 3.
10. “Parsons, Margaret E.” Albuquerque Journal: Obituaries. 12 September 2012. sec. C p. 3.
11. “Parsons, Margaret E.” Albuquerque Journal: Obituaries. 12 September 2012. sec. C p. 3.
12. “Parsons, Margaret E.” Albuquerque Journal: Obituaries. 12 September 2012. sec. C p. 3.

Featured Image:
“Margaret Bilyeu.” U.S., School Yearbooks, 1880-2012; School Name: St. Clairsville High School; Year: 1937. Retrieved: 28 June 2023. https://www.ancestry.com/discoveryui-content/view/403209133:1265

Compiled by A. D. McLean, MA, MLIS. Central New Mexico Community College, retired 2022.