Helen Cunigunda Bulovsky was born April 6, 1895 in Madison, Wisconsin. Her parents, Julius and Anna, were Bohemian immigrants from Austria. They had three other children, Bess, Victoria, and George. Julius died of heart disease in 1906, leaving Anna to raise and support four children. Helen attended Lapham School and graduated from Madison High School in 1914. Her mother married Bohemian widower Frank Lawrence in 1915; Helen gained four step-siblings through the marriage: Elsie, Dorothy, Leo, and Walter.
Bulovsky trained to be a nurse at Madison General Hospital and graduated in October 1917. She practiced as a registered nurse in Dane County until April 1918 when she enlisted into the Army Nurse Corps. She was likely aware that she had heart problems when she enlisted. She was sent to the East Coast and spent time training at U.S. Army General Hospital No. 9 (Lakewood, NJ) before sailing to Europe with Base Hospital No. 22 in June 1918.
She reported for duty in France on June 22. Base Hospital No. 22, composed largely of nurses and doctors from the Milwaukee area, was stationed at a large hospital, built near the French city of Bordeaux, called Beau Desert. In mid-July, Bulovsky transferred to Evacuation Hospital No. 5 and served near the front lines through the beginning of August. The field hospitals she served in were the first line of medical treatment, assessing and treating soldiers directly from the trenches. The doctors and nurses were usually just beyond the artillery range of the opposing forces. While near the front lines, she treated many soldiers from the 32nd “Red Arrow” Division. Bulovsky remained with Evacuation Hospital No. 5 until the end of the war. She was stationed near, and treated wounded soldiers from, the Aisne-Marne, Meuse-Argonne, and Ypres-Lys campaigns.
In October and November 1918 she moved with her unit into Belgium, following the advancing armies of the Allies. After the war ended she was stationed in Dunkerque through mid-January, and she ended her time in Europe back at Beau Desert.
She sailed back to the United States toward the end of February 1919 aboard the S.S. Santa Maria and arrived at the Nurses' Demobilization Station (Hotel Albert) in New York City on March 5. One week later she left New York to return home, arriving in Madison on March 15. She was relieved from the service on April 12, 1919.
Bulovsky married her stepbrother, Walter Lawrence, on May 11, 1922 and settled in Madison. She died of heart disease nine months later, on February 16, 1923, and was buried with full military honors in Calvary Cemetery.
