Linda K. Meirs

Melinda Konover Meirs (June 5, 1884 — November 27, 1972), known as Linda K. Meirs, was an American Red Cross and Army nurse during World War I. She was one of the first six American recipients of the Florence Nightingale Medal, awarded by the International Committee of the Red Cross in 1920.

Early life Linda K. Meirs was born in the Cream Ridge section of Upper Freehold Township, New Jersey, the daughter of Charles Robbins Meirs and Ida Konover Meirs. She grew up in Allentown, New Jersey. She attended the Philadelphia General Hospital Training School for Nurses.

Career Early in her career, Meirs worked in hospitals in Illinois, Colorado, Minnesota, and Mexico. During World War I, Meirs went to Kiev with the American Red Cross in 1914, but joined the United States Army Nurse Corps in 1916. She worked in field hospitals near the battlefront, as head of nurses at Jouy-sur-Morin, Château-Thierry, Toul, and Fleury-sur-Aire. In 1917, she was part of an American Red Cross mission to Romania. In 1918 she was relieved from active duty in the Army Nurse Corps, and assigned to be Chief Nurse at a Boston hospital by the U. S. Public Health Service. While waiting in Paris for transport home, she baked 176 apple pies for her patients to enjoy on Christmas Eve after the Armistice.

In 1920 she was one of the first six American nurses to receive the Florence Nightingale Medal from the International Committee of the Red Cross.

Personal life Meirs owned a cottage in Stone Harbor, New Jersey in the 1930s and 1940s. After 1963 she lived with her widowed brother, Charley, in Yardley, Pennsylvania. She died in 1972, aged 88 years.