Stella Mathews was a Registered Nurse who served with the Army and with the American Red Cross in France, Poland, and Greece. Mathews was born in Albion, Illinois, and in 1904 entered the Knowlton (later Columbia) School of Nursing in Milwaukee. After her graduation, she worked briefly in Allegheny, Pennsylvania, then became supervisor of Children's Hospital in Milwaukee. Mathews was instrumental in organizing Milwaukee County nurses, and in 1915, she established the Nurses' Club and Official Registry. She was one of the first to register with the Red Cross Nursing Service, and in 1910 was the first chairman of its Wisconsin Committee.
In 1918 Mathews left for Europe, in charge of a group of nurses who worked at Base Hospital No. 22 near Bordeaux, France. After the war's end, she volunteered for Red Cross duty in Poland (1920-1922) and Greece (1922-1923). In December 1923, Mathews went to Honolulu to visit a relative, and stayed for 19 years, working first as superintendent of Hilo Memorial Hospital, and later with the Honolulu Public Health Department. In 1934, Mathews organized the City and county Nurses' Association in Honolulu, with which she was associated until her retirement in 1938. Following the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor, Mathews moved to Berkeley, California, where she lived until her death on August 12, 1949.
