Beulah Ream Allen

Beulah Ream Allen
3/4 length standing portrait of a woman in a suit, gloves, wearing a large hat, being pinned with a medal by a man dressed in a military jacket.
Allen being given the Medal of Freedom
Born
Beulah Estelle Ream

(1897-01-26)January 26, 1897
DiedMarch 17, 1989(1989-03-17) (aged 92)
Other namesBeulah Allen Jarvis
Alma mater
Occupations
  • Nurse
  • physician
Years active1922–1979
AwardsMedal of Freedom (1946)

Beulah Ream Allen (January 26, 1897 – March 17, 1989) was an American nurse, physician, and civilian physician during World War II. After graduating with a nursing degree in 1922, she worked as a supervising nurse and headed the educational department for the LDS Hospital in Salt Lake City. She worked as a hospital inspector for the state of Utah until 1928, when she moved to San Francisco to attend medical school. While earning her degree at the University of California, San Francisco, she worked as a nurse in the Bay Area. Upon her graduation in 1932, she moved to the Philippines, where she opened a medical practice.

During World War II, she volunteered as a civilian surgeon for the United States Army. She was stationed in Baguio and was responsible for the care of nearly 30 soldiers, when the rest of the Army retreated to the Bataan Peninsula. Taken prisoner in 1941, she was held in three internment camps before being liberated. Returning to the United States, she resumed her practice in the Bay Area. She was awarded the Medal of Freedom in 1946. In 1960, she moved her practice to Provo, Utah, where she served as dean of the Brigham Young University College of Nursing until 1964. Allen retired in 1979 and in that year married and relocated to Mesa, Arizona, where she lived until her death in 1989.