Rita G. Palmer James was born on February 23, 1918, at Exeter Hospital, New Hampshire. She was the daughter of Charles D. and Bernice Glidden Palmer. She was married to Lloyd James. She was raised in Hampton, graduated from Hampton Academy in 1936, and was a direct descendant of William Palmer, one of the first settlers of Hampton. She completed her nursing education at the Deaconess Hospital Nurses Training in Boston, graduating in 1939. After working as a nurse in Boston, she joined the U.S. Army Nurse Corps in 1940 and was assigned to Clark Field Hospital in the Philippines.

During World War II, she served in field hospitals in Bataan and Corregidor, where she was wounded during the American surrender and taken prisoner. As one of the “Angels of Bataan and Corregidor,” she was among the U.S. Army and Navy nurses who were captured and continued serving as nurses in POW camps in and around Manila. She endured three years of captivity at Santo Tomas Internment Camp until liberation in February 1945. Rita later settled in Minneapolis, Minnesota, and passed away on February 14, 2002, at the age of 83, and was buried in High Street Cemetery, Hampton, Rockingham County, New Hampshire, USA.

Source of information and photo: history.lanememoriallibrary.org