CAPT US Army, Mozelle “Mo” Elizabeth Brewer Vinsant
Born: July 5, 1917
Died: March 6, 2007
Burial Site: SFNC, Section X, Site 534A
As a captain in the Army Nurse Corps Mozelle “Mo” Brewer (Vinsant) served at Fort Bragg, Oliver General, Walter Reed, and was stationed for a time in India. 1 In 1944 she received a commendation from Brigadier General H.C. Coburn for “upholding the highest traditions of nursing service” for her role in evacuating an injured soldier from a burning truck and treating his injuries. 2 She was promoted to lieutenant in 1944. 3 After the war, Brewer continued with the Army Reserves and attained the rank of major. 1
Brewer was born to Carrie and Rufus Brewer in Siler City, North Carolina. 1, 4 She studied at Siler Hill High School, Mars Hill Junior College, and the School of Public Health at the University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill. 1 She then earned her nursing degree from North Carolina Baptist Hospital at Winston-Salem. 5
Brewer Vinsant served as the chief nurse at the Charlotte Regional American Red Cross Blood Center in North Carolina. In 1951 she moved to New Mexico and was employed at the Veteran’s Hospital in Albuquerque and met and married Thurman Wallace Vinsant. 1, 6 The couple moved to Roswell where Brewer Vinsant worked as a public health nurse responsible for Lincoln, Eddy, Lee, Chaves, and Otero counties. She helped to establish the Hospice Program in New Mexico and the Health Department in Ruidoso. 1
Images & Documents
Vinsant, Mozelle Brewer P2
“Nurse Students Go to Pittsburgh,” Twin City Sentinel, March 2, 1942, 3. Newspapers.com.
Vinsant, Mozelle Brewer P3
“Inzer Urges Life with Margin as 14 Nurses Graduate,” Winston- Salem Journal, May 8, 1942, 8. Newspapers.com.
Vinsant, Mozelle Brewer P4
“CPT Mozelle Elizabeth ‘Mo’ Brewer Vinsant,” Find a Grave. Accessed May 18, 2023. https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/72873785/mozelle-elizabeth-vinsant.
Vinsant, Mozelle Brewer D1
“Three Local Nurses Receive Commendation,” Twin City Sentinel, December 29, 1944, 3. Newspapers.com.
Vinsant, Mozelle Brewer D2
“Mozelle ‘Mo’ Vinsant, “The Chatham Record, March 15, 2007, 7. Newspapers.com.
Notes:
1. “Mozelle ‘Mo’ Vinsant, “The Chatham Record, March 15, 2007, 7. Newspapers.com.
2. “Three Local Nurses Receive Commendation,” Twin City Sentinel, December 29, 1944, 3. Newspapers.com.
3. “News about Nursing.” The American Journal of Nursing 45, no. 5 (1945): 406–18. http://www.jstor.org/stable/3417065.
4. Ancestry.com. 1920 United States Federal Census [database on-line]. Provo, UT, USA: Ancestry.com Operations, Inc., 2010. Images reproduced by FamilySearch.
5. “Inzer Urges Life with Margin as 14 Nurses Graduate,” Winston- Salem Journal, May 8, 1942, 8. Newspapers.com.
6. “Miss M.E. Brewer Married to Thurman Wallace Vinsant, The Charlotte Observer, January 17, 1954, 5C. Newspapers.com.
Featured Image:
“Three Local Nurses Receive Commendation,” Twin City Sentinel, December 29, 1944, 3. Newspapers.com.
Prepared by Sue Ruth, Ph.D., Central New Mexico Community College