SHERIDAN - Funeral services for Sheridan resident Eloise Bourke, 82, will be conducted at 10 a.m. Tuesday, Jan. 6, at the First Christian Church by the Rev. Douglas Goodwin. Cremation will follow and burial will be in Little Big Horn National Cemetery in Crow Agency, Mont.

She died Dec. 28, 2003, at the Veterans Affairs Medical Center in Sheridan.

Born Jan. 10, 1921, in Beatrice, Neb., she was the daughter of Thomas and Lucille (Collier) Griffin; and, in 1929, moved with the family to Sheridan, where she was raised and educated.

She graduated from Sheridan High School in 1939 and Sheridan County Memorial Hospital School of Nursing in 1942.

>From 1943 to 1946, she served in the U.S. Army Nurse Corps, including two years in a field hospital in Europe during World War II. The field hospital and personnel saw action during the Battle of the Bulge, Ardennes and Rhineland and were awarded the EMAE Theater Campaign Medal with two bronze stars and WWII Victory Medal. After the war in Europe, the unit was transferred to Norway and the nurses' photographs there appeared in the National Geographic magazine of September 1945.

On Jan. 29, 1946, she married James J. Bourke in Sheridan.

She was a registered nurse at MHSC from 1947 to 1957, then worked at the V.A. Medical Center from 1957 until her retirement in 1977.

A member of the American Legion for more than 50 years, she was a 62-year member of First Christian Church; and belonged to the American Medical Association, SNA and District NA before her retirement, and AARP.

She enjoyed visiting her children, extended family and friends; and was active in her church and choir.

Survivors include three sons and their wives, James J. Bourke II of Woodbridge, Va., Ronald Bourke of Hastings, Neb., and Michael Bourke of Sheridan; sister, Betty Snyder of Casper; seven grandchildren; and 12 great-grandchildren.

She was preceded in death by her husband on Feb. 11, 1977, after 31 years of marriage; parents; a brother, Richard D. Griffin; and an uncle.

Memorials may benefit First Christian Church or the Salvation Army.