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| Kay (Armstrong) Braeuninger |
Kay (Armstrong) Braeuninger was born May 17, 1916 on her family’s potato farm in Caribou. She grew up in Caribou and graduated from Caribou High School in 1933.
Kay worked for the Caribou Library during and after high school until she attended nursing school at Massachusetts General Hospital in Boston in 1935. She graduated in 1938 as a nurse and nursing instructor. She remained in the Boston area, teaching at both Mass General and Burbank Hospitals in Fitchburg until she joined the Navy Nurse Corps in 1943.
In the Navy Nurse Corps, Kay used the skills she had learned in New England and served as a nurse and nursing instructor. During World War II, she was stationed in Chelsea, Mass., Fort Lauderdale, Fla., and Bethesda Naval Hospital. After the war ended, Kay continued to serve, becoming an instructor of corpsmen at the San Diego Corps School in Long Beach, Calif.
Kay also trained in American Samoa, teaching the Samoans to become nurses, and she served in Washington, D.C., at the Nurse Corps Headquarters.
For her service in the Navy, Kay received many decorations and awards, including the World War II Victory Ribbon and Campaign Ribbon. She was honorably discharged on April 2, 1946 after almost three years of service.
While in American Samoa in 1948, she met a young Navy pilot, Dale Braeuninger, and the two married in 1950. While Dale worked for the Department of Defense, Kay raised their two children. They lived in Silver Springs, Md., and several overseas locations, including Frankfurt, Germany, and Harrogate, England. Kay was always involved in social activities and she was a Girl Scout and 4H leader.
For 19 years the Braeuningers lived in Belfast, but then moved to Salisbury, Md. in 2002 and lived there until 2007. It was then that they moved to Aroostook County with their daughter, Kathy, and her husband, Dean Hunter.
Dale passed away at Maine Veterans’ Home in Caribou in 2008.
Kay moved to MVH in April 2012 after living with her family in Fort Fairfield. At MVH she enjoys reading, bird watching and listening to big-band music. She also takes part in the many activities the home provides, including taking in the sights during bus rides to various locations around the area.
The couple has two children, Kathy and Rob, three grandchildren, and two great-grandchildren.
Thank you, Kay, for your service!
