Nancy Wellons Windes and Mary Edwards Plybon

Established in 2008 by Nancy Wellons Windes andMary Edwards Plybon, this scholarship memorializes their two mothers. Despite now living in CO and NC respectively, these cousins who grew up in Virginia and NC remain close and are happy to have found this way to honor the memory of their mothers who gave not only so selflessly to their family and friends, but to their communities as well.

Their moms both had long and fulfilling nursing careers. They were originally both from eastern NC. Grace, Nancy’s mother, attended East Carolina Teachers College (now ECU) while Eula, Mary’s mother, attended what is now Barton College. They transferred to Carolina General in Wilson to complete their nurse training. These almost instant friends/roommates became sisters-in-law after Grace introduced Eula to her brother, Charles Edwards. Upon graduation, Eula joined the Women’s Army Corps serving as a field nurse in France during WWII. When asked why she joined, she exclaimed, “They needed nurses, and I was a nurse!” Eula worked in hospitals and doctor’s offices for decades until retirement and volunteered her nursing skills in her local community for many years after retiring.

After graduation, Grace took care of her father who had fallen ill and later worked for 30 years as an OB-GYN nurse in Richmond, continuing to volunteer for many years after retirement at the same hospital.