Ensign Mary Feeney Gordenstein Courtesy of the Ossining Historical Society and Museum
Ensign Mary Feeney Gordenstein 1916 – 1943 OHS 1933
U.S. Navy Nurse, Died in Action , World War II ***Local connection: Hamilton Avenue***
Did you know that Feeney Road in the Town of Ossining is named after Ensign Mary Feeney Gordenstein, a US Navy nurse who died in Pearl Harbor, Hawaii on April 14, 1943?
Mary Feeney was born in Ossining on September 11, 1916, to John and Ida Mae (Farren) Feeney. Her father was a desk clerk for the Ossining Police.
They first rented a house at 72 South Highland Avenue and then moved to 31 Hamilton Avenue.
Both houses still stand today:
72 Highland Avenue. Photo source: Google Streetview
31 Hamilton Avenue. Photo source: Google Streetview
Mary went to Ossining High School, graduating in 1933. She then went on to study at the Cochran School of Nursing at St. John’s Riverside Hospital, Yonkers, graduating in 1937.
The census for 1940 has her working in “private practice.” In August 1941, she entered the US Navy Nurse Corps as an Ensign and spent at least four months in training before being shipped out. (For more on the US Navy Nurse Corps see here and here.)
Navy Nurse Recruiting Poster. Courtesy of the National Archives
When Ensign Feeney joined up, there were only about 800 Navy nurses on active duty. By the end of World War II, over 11,000 nurses, both active and reserve, were serving in the Navy.
Ensign Feeney’s initial posting is still unclear, but in May of 1942 she married Bernard Joseph Gordenstein in Hillsborough, New Hampshire. He was also in the Navy, serving as a pharmacist. (This bit of information came as something of a surprise to the members of the Feeney family consulted for this exhibit. This might explain why the road is named Feeney and not Gordenstein.)
At some point, after the December 7, 1941 Pearl Harbor attacks, Ensign Mary Feeney was posted to Hawaii and served at the Pearl Harbor Naval Hospital. This was where injured warriors, primarily those from the Pacific Theatre of Operations, were stabilized before they were sent back to the US.
Here’s a 1942 photo from the U.S. Navy Bureau of Medicine and Surgery — while I can’t prove it, I have a feeling that the third nurse from the left, in the back row, might be our Mary Feeney.
Administrative group including Navy nurses and Red Cross workers at the Pearl Harbor Naval Hospital, 1942. Courtesy U.S. Navy Bureau of Medicine and Surgery
And in the photo below, the nurse seated in the front row all the way on the left actually does look very much like Ensign Feeney. (What do you think?) If it is, it would have been taken just four months before her death.
U.S. Navy Nurses pose for a group portrait at Pearl Harbor, Territory of Hawaii, December 16, 1942. Photo source: National Museum of the U.S. Navy
Sadly, Ensign Mary Feeney’s career in the US Navy was brief – she died of pneumonia on April 14, 1943 while stationed at the Pearl Harbor Naval Hospital.
She was posthumously awarded the Bronze Star for “Heroic or Meritorious Achievement or Service.”
She is buried in the Punchbowl National Memorial Cemetery of the Pacific on Oahu.
And in 1963, the Town of Ossining would name a street in the newly completed Lakeville Estates subdivision after her.
Thanks to the ongoing efforts of the Ossining Historic Cemeteries Conservancy, I recently had the privilege of cleaning this grave, that of Private Homer Barnes, who died in France on September 26, 1944:
I must confess that I chose this grave specifically because it had a Veteran’s flag stuck into the earth in front of it and because the date of death clearly indicated that he had died in WWII. I felt that there was a story to uncover here, and I was not wrong.
Homer Barnes was born in Hamilton, Ontario in 1917 – at the time his father, Dr. Edmund Barnes, was serving as a Major in the Army Medical Corps stationed at Fort Dix during WWI. Homer’s mother had gone home to live with her family while she awaited the birth of her son.
The Barnes family would move to Ossining after the War, and Homer would attend the Scarborough School and then graduate from OHS in 1934.
Courtesy of the 1934 Ossining High School Yearbook
According to his October 23, 1944 obituary published in the Citizen Register, he then attended Pennington Seminary, New York University, and the New York Technical School. The 1940 census has him working as a “chauffeur, self-employed.”
Homer Barnes registered for the draft on October 16, 1940, and was inducted into the service on December 16, 1942[1] at Camp Upton.
He would serve in the 36th Infantry Division, 143rd Infantry Regiment, Company A, 1st Battalion. (I learned all this from the 36th Division Archive, which also notes that his address was 120 North Highland Avenue, Ossining. Today this is the site of Mavis Discount Tire.)
Private First Class Barnes married Ruth Treanor on April 10, 1943 while he was on furlough from Camp Phillips, Kansas to attend his mother’s funeral in Ossining. Ruth would apparently accompany him back to Camp Phillips and stay there until he went overseas on November 1, 1943. PFC Barnes would see some extraordinarily heavy action, first in Italy, then in France.
Now, I’ve never learned much about the Italian campaign of WWII. Just quickly researching PFC Barnes’ Army service has already taught me more than I ever knew about this part of the war, thanks to the detailed after action reports kept (and digitized) by the 36th Infantry Division archive. Here’s a link to the entire thing, if you’re interested.
I’m not yet exactly sure when PFC Barnes entered the field of battle, but the 143rd Infantry Regiment was engaged in some pretty hot fighting in Operation Avalanche, and the Battles of Monte Cassino, and San Pietro during the last few months of 1943.
By February 1944, PFC Barnes had been awarded a Purple Heart for wounds received while crossing the Rapido River near San Angelo, Italy that January. The after-action report for the 36th Infantry offers some excruciating details about this Rapido River offensive:
“Enemy artillery and mortar fire began falling as the first troops reached the river and when Company “A” [PFC Barnes’ company] sent the first wave across, it met with heavy machine gun fire. . . Reports from men who returned the next day indicate that the German machine gun positions were wired in and the bands of fire were interlocking. Many men were wounded in the lower extremities or the buttocks by low grazing fire as they moved or crawled forward.” (52)
PFC Barnes would have shrapnel lodge in his thigh and end up hospitalized for a month after this.
He returned to the front and continued advancing towards Rome with his regiment. The after-action report almost waxes poetic here:
“Never in the entire Italian campaign was there so brilliant a division operation as that employed by the 36th Infantry Division in flanking the enemy bastion at Velletri…. never before in history had the “Eternal City” been captured from the south and as was evidenced by the swiftness with which the enemy was forced to reel back, he was surprised and outwitted by this brilliant maneuver.” (77)
That said, there was deadly fighting throughout, with the German defense “skillfully located and carefully prepared, with first class infantry and strong supporting fire of artillery.” (77)
However, by June 5, 1944 (yes, the day before the Normandy Invasion D-Day!)
“The 143rd Infantry Regiment moved through the city in all available transportation, past the Colosseum, the Ancient Forum, Vatican City and splendid Saint Peter’s Cathedral, through the Arch of Triumph of the Caesars amid cheering throngs of Romans throwing garlands of flowers – greeted as true liberators in a grandiose but sincere reception. No infantryman will forget this experience and he may well be proud to remember it. Following this triumphal turn through Rome, all troops of the 143rd Regiment terminated their gruelling advance, and took a well-deserved rest, bivouacking on the outskirts of the city.” (78)
I sincerely hope that PFC Barnes got to experience this – it must have been rewarding and remarkable. Because after a short break, his regiment would continue to pursue the Germans north. As Captain Douglas Boyd, the Adjutant of the 143rd Infantry Regiment and author of this part of the after-action report writes: “There is no praise too great for the officers and men of the regiment who uncomplainingly, with true soldierly spirit and without regard to self, fought their way those 240 miles in hot pursuit of the enemy.” (90)
After this, PFC Barnes and the 143rd engaged in a Normandy-like invasion of beachheads in Southern France, landing between Cannes (to the north) and Saint-Tropez to the south. PFC Barnes would spend the last month of his life engaged in daily life and death battles, pushing up into the French Alps and encountering stiff resistance from German troops the whole way.
While I can’t be 100% certain, it seems that the last fight PFC Barnes engaged in took place around the Moselle River near a town called Remiremont.
Courtesy of the 36th Division Archive, 143rd Infantry After-Action Reports
The after-action report describes the attack as follows:
“The 143rd began to cross the Moselle River in a column of battalions, the troops waiting and hand carrying their weapons . . . The 1st Battalion – [PFC Barnes’] moved towards its objective, Hill 605 southeast of Eloyes, while under enemy artillery, mortar and machine gun fire. The enemy, approximating battalion strength, engaged the first battalion units in a fierce fire fight. During the night of 21 September 1944, a company of Germans infiltrated Company A’s [PFC Barnes’] positions, and at the dawn of 22nd September, bitter hand to hand fighting ranged until the Germans were cleared.” (133)
PFC Barnes died on 26 September 1944 from wounds received on 22 September, so I’m going to make the assumption that he was wounded in this “bitter hand to hand fighting.”
He would be posthumously awarded the Silver Star for gallantry and this decoration would be presented to his two-year-old son, William E. Barnes.
[1] October 23, 1944 obitiuary published in the Citizen Register
Ossining History on the Run 