"A Story of Air Evacuation"

   By Pauline King

One year and a half has passed

by since that cold, dark morning

when we rumbled through the

gates of Bowman Field in G.I.

trucks. That was the beginning

of our tour of overseas duty which

proposed to discover how well we

had learned our lessons.

Our first flights to the continent following D-Day were short ones' over the channel to the tip of the Cherbourg Penninsula, then down along the coast to an airstrip on the beachhead. Landing in a cloud of dust, we joined the queue of C-47's and received our load of human cargo. It gives a deep sense of satisfaction when we are able to evacuate patients fresh from the battlefield within a few hours after being wounded. It is then we feel that Air Evacuation has attained its full purpose...

Continue reading Pauline's story of WWII 

By Liz Wolfe and Jennifer Wolfe Guidry

Pauline King was a small town girl from rural Pennsylvania who literally changed the lives of thousands of the sick, abandoned, and forlorn in India, giving them dignity and hope in a world that had discarded them.

Never married, Dr. King adopted five children on her own and provided homes for hundreds more on the Family Village Farm near Vellore, India. The Farm, established by King in 1969, gives orphans, widows, and elderly people the dignity of a clean home, education, and the ability to work to improve their lives. Everyone there called her, simply, “Mummy.”

King worked for many years as a professor and public health nurse at the Christian Medical College and Hospital in Vellore, and she managed the Family Village Farm until her retirement in 1988.  In 1979, King was honored by India with the President’s Award for meritorious service to the community, one of the highest honors bestowed to India’s citizens.

“She was the Protestant Mother Teresa,” said the Rev. Edith Wolfe, former Executive Secretary for the Women’s Board of Missions for the Pacific Islands in Honolulu, HI, and a long-time friend of King.  The Board of Missions was one of the supporters of the United Church Board for World Ministries.

A memorial service for King, who died at the age of 83 on January 19, 2002 in her adopted daughter’s home in Huntingdon, Long Island, was held at the Interchurch Center on Riverside Drive in New York City on Saturday, February 19, 2002.  A memorial service was held on the Family Village Farm on January 29, and was attended by hundreds of Indian officials, citizens, and former residents of the Farm.

Much of what is known about King’s life in India is documented in the newsletters that King wrote and mailed to hundreds of subscribers around the world during her stay in India.  Additional information was gathered on King’s last two trips to India, in 1992 and 1994, for which the Women’s Board of Missions in Hawaii hired a photographer to document her journey and collect as much biographical data as possible.

Dr. King is survived by her adopted daughters, Annie Roberts of Florida; Glory King Capers of Alabama; Victoria of Saudi Arabia; Dolly of Hyderabad, India; and Rani of Ranipet, India; and one son, Selva Raj, who is married to Rani.   These children were among the first she brought into her home, and she eventually became their official guardian.

The story of how she came to adopt these children is testament to the selfless assistance that she provided to others despite many obstacles.

Continue the incredible and selfless story of Pauline King here

A missionary and public health educator in post-war India, her philosophy was, “I may not be able to do much, but I can do something.  And, if I do what I can, maybe others will help.”  It was with that thought in mind that she took in her first destitute  family and began changing the lives of thousands without hope through the Family Village Farm.

“In very concrete terms she did something that made a difference in people's lives,” said Eric Gass, a fellow missionary and an executive with the United Church Board for World Ministries, which supported King’s work in India.

Her approach was different because it was immensely practical, he said.  She not only tended to people’s physical well-being, but their mental and spiritual health as well.  She believed in giving people useful skills so they had a purpose to their lives and could become contributing members of society.

“I may not be able to do much, but I can do something.  And, if I do what I can, maybe others will help.”

Small Town Girl's Determination Changes India Forever

Public Health Educator Provides Dignity and Hope for India's Poor

"The Central Selection Committee recommends that a certificate may be awarded at the National level to Dr. (Miss) Pauline E. King, Retired Hony. Professor, College of Nursing, Christian Medical College and Hospital, Vellore, Tamil Nadu keeping in view her outstanding performance in the field of Community Health Nursing" 

-Government of India

Ministry of Health and Family Welfare

March 13, 1980

Biographical data of Pauline King

June 4, 1917     Born in Hillsdale, Pa.

1924-1936 Undergraduate education at Jeanette Pa.

Jan '38-Jan '41 Diploma course in nursing (RN) at the City Hospital School of Nursing, Arkon, OH

Jan. '41-Sept '42 County Health Nurse in Summit and Logan Counties, OH

Oct. '42-June '46 Flight Nurse in Army Air Corp, WWII in Europe (Air Evacuation Squadron

Sept '46 to Jan '48...

Continue reading Pauline's Biographical Timeline

Pauline King with some of the children from Family Village Farm

Website designed by Trevor Durham. Supported byIM Creator

Photos and Biography compiled, taken and/or written by Jennifer Wolfe Guidry and Liz Wolfe