JHQVAMC dedicates dining hall honoring WWII-era Veteran
James H. Quillen VA Medical Center (JHQVAMC) held a ceremony June 16, 2023, at 2 p.m., to dedicate the Community Living Center (CLC) dining room in honor of Hazel Roi McInturff Berry, a World War II Veteran and longtime volunteer at the medical center.
During the ceremony, the dining room was officially renamed the Hazel Berry Dining Room and a bronze plaque with Berry’s image and an inscription was hung.
Berry was chosen as part of a 2021 VA-wide initiative to recognize millions of women who have served in the U.S. military since the American Revolution. She spent more than 55 years volunteering, of which 12,446 hours of volunteer time was at JHQVAMC since time-tracking began. Much of her volunteerism was spent in the dining room serving and interacting with fellow Veterans.
“It is an honor to have benefitted from Ms. Berry’s care and kindness she bestowed upon this facility and the Veterans who have passed through its halls”, said Medical Center Director Dean B. Borsos, during the ceremony. “Ms. Berry spent a lifetime serving our great Nation through her service in the U.S. Navy and then during many years of helping other Veterans right here at the Community Living Center.”
Berry was born in Unicoi, Tenn., May 5, 1925, and joined the U.S. Navy in 1944 at age 19, serving as a storekeeper. She volunteered from October 1966 until her death in November 2020 at 95-years-old, starting her volunteering stint as an American Red Cross “Candy Striper” (hospital volunteer) pushing Veteran patients in wheelchairs, playing cards with them, helping with special events, and many other day-to-day duties to assist staff and others caring for Veterans.
Ms. Berry’s volunteer time at the CLC “is an incredible accomplishment that spanned many decades—proof of her sheer dedication,” said Dustin Wilson, acting chief of the Center for Development and Civic Engagement, here. “Perhaps the most important indication of Ms. Berry’s impact is that you still hear her name spoken in the halls at Mountain Home. To put it simply, she left a legacy.”
Ms. Berry was honored March 15, 2014, with a gubernatorial award from the State of Tennessee for her Volunteer work. She was a lifetime member of the Unicoi United Methodist Church where she was a choir member and Sunday school teacher. She was married to her late husband Richard for 58 years and the couple had two daughters, one of which is also a VA Volunteer.