By Matt de Simone
The Town of Buchanan was once the home of Eva Ageon, who was among the first Red Cross First Reserve nurses from the area to join the Army Nurse Corps almost a year before the attack on Pearl Harbor. She is one of nine women from Virginia who died in service during World War II.
And now, 80 years later, Brent Reiffer – a retired 28-year Marine Corps officer – wants to share a comprehensive look into Ageon’s life and the lives of eight other Virginians who sacrificed their lives for the United States while serving in the military during the second World War. He is currently looking for information and support from the Botetourt community in learning more about Eva Ageon for his current project.
Eva Virginia Ageon, born February 21, 1910, in Buchanan, was the youngest of five children raised on a 165-acre family farm just outside town. She graduated from Buchanan High School in 1928 and completed her nurse’s training at Jefferson Hospital in Roanoke in 1932.
In response to a national call for military nurses, Aegon volunteered early, joining the Army Nurse Corps on January 4, 1941, following her initial offer to serve in September 1940. She became the first Red Cross First Reserve nurse from Roanoke to volunteer for both Army duty and foreign service, working first at Fort Benning and later at Fort Gulick in the Panama Canal Zone.
Aegon died there on May 12, 1942, (83 years ago this Monday) from acute infectious hepatitis caused by a contaminated yellow fever vaccine, one of 62 such fatalities. Originally buried in the Panama Canal Zone, she was reinterred in her hometown in 1979. In 1943, Fort Gulick honored her with the dedication of Ageon Stadium, recognizing her devotion and exemplary service, in what was described as likely the first U.S. Army stadium named for a woman.
Photos courtesy of Brent Reiffer
Reiffer is now a genealogist and founder of Fallen Leaf Genealogy – a business that provides family history research and specializes in military veteran-related research. He serves as a Warrior Advocate Leader for the Wounded Warrior Project and also serves on the Joint Leadership Council of Veterans Service Organizations which is group formed under the Virginia Department of Veteran Services. He currently resides just outside of Midlothian in Moseley, Va.
“I’m kind of plugged in at the national and state level for Virginia, for what goes on in the veterans’ space and advocate for veteran legislation,” Reiffer said in an interview last Thursday.
About a year ago, Reiffer was at a meeting of veterans in central Virginia and heard about a woman from a VFW Post in Hopewell putting together a commemoration at the Virginia War Memorial in Richmond for the 12 total female veterans who were born or entered military service through Virginia and died in the line of duty. Reiffer offered his expertise on the matter.
“I said, hey, if you’re looking for help, for getting any living members, relatives, whatever, to this ceremony where they were going to commemorate their service, I’m happy to help,” Reiffer continued. “So, I reverse engineered a bunch of these (veterans’) family trees, and I reached out (to their families).”
Reiffer found that a lot of the women were not married, so there were not any direct descendants. While Reiffer admitted the process proved “a little tricky,” he was able to find scattered grand-nieces and great-grand-nephews who were able to attend the commemoration ceremony.
He explained, “At that point, I just thought, you know what? When you dig into these women’s stories, there are some blurbs about them that you can find (through research), but there’s no single source that provides any in-depth story about their lives. A lot of them are just sort of factoids that talk about when or possibly how they died.”
Reiffer then began compiling in-depth stories about the nine women from Virginia who died in military service during World War II and FallenLeafGenealogy.com would initially be the place to read those stories, though a compiled book or other method of publishing these women’s stories is still being determined.
He is completing what is called a “biosketch” on Eva Ageon’s life – a concise summary of a person’s professional and academic background, achievements, and qualifications. Reiffer is personally funding this effort out of pocket with some help from a related GoFundMe account.
“While I have a lot of information that was run in the local newspapers (during that time) and I have her official military records that definitely provide primary source evidence of a lot of stuff, I don’t have the local story,” Reiffer shared. “I know where she lived (in Buchanan) and that (her family) had this 165-acre farm – but was it a cattle farm? A dairy farm? It would be good to know exactly if anybody had information about the farm itself and what the Ageons did for the generations that were there.”
Reiffer is looking for information about Ageon on the local level through family members, distant relatives, or others that are still in the area that may have access to photographs or additional information about Eva Ageon’s life.
“(I’m looking for family members) that may have been passed down pictures, as people do, of families, and they maybe don’t know about her service but they’re sitting on a treasure trove of information that family members would have that is not out there in the public,” Reiffer continued. “That type of information about Ageon’s life in Buchanan would be very helpful.”
For example, a copy of the Buchanan High School yearbook from 1928 would be something specific Reiffer is hunting down for this project.
Reiffer plans to donate all the files of record he receives to the Virginia War Memorial in Richmond for its archives.
At this point, Reiffer is still figuring out what kind of tribute he is planning to have based on his research, beyond adding the information to his website and possibly publishing a book of the nine biosketches. He is appreciative of Buchanan Library Branch Manager Cheryl Wagner for all her help on the project.
“Our meeting was a bit serendipitous—I happen to know the person who owns the property where her official marker is located, so I was able to share that connection with him,” Wagner said when asked about Reiffer’s research. “While my role was very limited, I found his research fascinating and appreciated the opportunity to be a small part of it.”
The genealogist is hopeful that people locally will help him find the best way to honor Eva Ageon in Buchanan.
“Hopefully, at a local level, there will be something that pops out and comes from it.”
To reach out to Reiffer about information on Eva Ageon, contact him at brent.reiffer@fallenleafgenealogy.com or by phone at 804-536-2107.
