May McGregor came to the Bemidji area about 1908. On June 4, 1918 she was sent overseas to care for American soldiers fighting in World War I. “She left as a Red Cross nurse and returned as a second lieutenant in the army,” said Given’s daughter, Rosemary Given Amble.
Mrs. James Given, Bemidji nurse and educator, was honored with inclusion in the 1964 Who’s Who in America. Her selection came in recognition of many years of active service to her community and nation, beginning with her first teaching position in 1907.
May Olive McGregor was born near Grafton, N.D on May 4, 1889. She completed her education at Grafton. She began her teaching career at Brocket, N.D. in March 1907 and continued at McVill, N.D. before coming to the Bemidji area where she taught at Solway, Island Lake, Nebish, Ferris and Rosby from 1908-1913.
She graduated from St. Mary’s School of Nursing at Rochester in 1916 as a registered nurse and served at hospitals at Rochester, and did private nursing at Fort Worth, Tex., before joining the U.S. Army Medical Corps and serving with the American Expeditionary forces in Europe for 13 months.
Ten nurses and eight doctors from Rochester were assigned to Mobile Hospital No. 1, a surgical unit which moved along the front caring for the seriously wounded during the offensive at Chateau Thiery, Belleau Woods, the Marne, St. Mehiel, Argonne Forest and finally at Dead Man’s Hill where the unit was stationed ahead of the heavy artillery.
Following the end of the war, Mrs. Given turned to public health nursing until her marriage to James Keatley Given on March 31, 1920 at Bemidji. The Givens had four children. She returned to nursing in 1955 as supervisor at the Fairview Nursing Home and later worked for four years as a home nurse in the Bemidji area. She served as a house mother at Bemidji State College since July 1946.
Mrs. Given was honored as Bemidji’s Mother of the Year in 1953. She was a member of First Presbyterian Church and served as its Women’s association president in 1932.
Mrs. Given died in 1980 and is buried in Greenwood Cemetery.
A more detailed account of her life was published in the Bemidji Sentinel on Nov. 8, 1963. Additional information is in the vertical files of the Beltrami County Historical Society. An interesting manuscript entitled “Please Nurse!” covers her life as a nurse in WWI, 1918.