Honor your hero with thoughts, memories, images and stories.
The steam engine pulled its train into Pennsboro, WV dead slow. The B&O train crew and the hundreds of Pennsboro residents waiting in silent respect on the platform knew why – one of its passengers was making her final stop. Army Nurse Corps Second Lieutenant Helen Edith Corra of Pennsboro, aged 24 years, 6 months, and 27 days, who had been killed in the line of duty in France, was coming home. The Army Honor Guard went quickly to the task of unloading the casket onto a hand-drawn cart, to the sound of the crowd's muffled crying. The entire town was shocked and saddened. Everyone knew Helen, her graduation from Pennsboro High School, her eagerness to earn her nursing degree and join the Army. Now she was coming home a hero, nearly four years after her death. The same Honor Guard carried her to her Funeral Mass celebrated at St. Joseph’s Catholic Church where she had been baptized and confirmed. The crowds of mourners overflowed the small church by hundreds. On that day her body was laid to rest beside her father and two siblings in consecrated ground at St. Joseph's. She had made the Supreme Sacrifice and became an American Hero forever. May God grant her Eternal Rest. Amen
On December 4, 1944 near the River Seine in Paris, Army Nurse Corps Second Lieutenant Helen Edith Corra of Pennsboro, Ritchie County, West Virginia, aged 24 years, 6 months, and 27 days, made the Supreme Sacrifice of her life. She was killed in action in the line of duty while caring for an injured American soldier. Her sacrifice and that of her devastated family and friends were acknowledged by no less than Franklin Delano Roosevelt and Lyndon Baines Johnson, Presidents of the United States, on behalf of a grateful People. Lt. Corra was baptized in May, 1920, and later confirmed in Saint Joseph's. The City of Pennsboro came to a standstill during the Requiem Mass celebrated at her funeral since most of the city's residents knew her and wanted to attend. She is buried at St. Joseph's in consecrated ground near her parents and five siblings. In this picture, her gravestone is marked by Old Glory, indicating her status as an American Hero forever. May she rest in peace. Amen.