Robert O’Brien of Spokane Valley looks through family newsletters and photos from the years around World War I, especially stories surrounding the death of his aunt, Mary Philomena O’Brien, who contracted the flu and died while caring for other flu victims and the war wounded. (Jesse Tinsley / The Spokesman-Review)
In the collection of Robert O’Brien of Spokane Valley is a photo of his aunt Mary Philomena O’Brien, who was called Sis, who died in 1918 after volunteering to care for flu victims and WWI soldiers at Gonzaga College where there was a sick ward. In the framed photo is William T. O’Brien, Roberts father and brother to Sis, and seen in the photos on either side of Sis is Phil O’Brien, their brother and who was on the battlefield in Europe when Sis died. (Jesse Tinsley / The Spokesman-Review)
Phil C. O’Brien of Spokane, shown in a WWI photo, (Robert C. O'Brien / COURTESY)
In the family papers of Robert O’Brien, old newsletters tell the story of Mary Philomena O’Brien, who volunteered to care for WWI soldiers as well as those afflicted with the flu in 1918. She was called Sis by her two older brothers in the war, and she succumbed to the flu after caring for patients. (Jesse Tinsley / The Spokesman-Review)
In October 1918, Phil O’Brien was a sergeant stationed in France during the First World War, and his sister, Sis O’Brien, was working as a nurse at Gonzaga University. In the early days of the influenza outbreak in Spokane, as she cared for the sick, she contracted the disease and died.
Dr. John Anderson was strolling down Riverside Avenue in downtown Spokane when a man spit on the sidewalk in front of him – a common, if foul, occurrence. It was also an arrestable offense, as the man would soon find out.