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Vietnam Veteran Who Founded Women's Memorial Dies at 79
25 May
Summary
- Diane Carlson Evans, Army veteran and founder of Vietnam Women's Memorial, died at 79.
- She served one year in Vietnam's burn units before advocating for a memorial.
- The Vietnam Women's Memorial was approved in 1988 and unveiled in 1993.
Diane Carlson Evans, an Army veteran and the Minnesota native who founded the Vietnam Women's Memorial in Washington, D.C., passed away on Wednesday at the age of 79. Carlson Evans, who grew up on a dairy farm in Buffalo, Minnesota, served one year in Vietnam as an Army nurse. She worked in burn units at evacuation hospitals, an experience that fueled her later advocacy.
Following her service, Carlson Evans tirelessly worked to establish a memorial honoring the more than 265,000 American women who served during the war. She co-founded the Vietnam Women's Memorial Foundation in 1984. This foundation successfully lobbied Congress, resulting in the memorial's approval in 1988 and its official unveiling in 1993.
Carlson Evans expressed in 2024 that the memorial's creation allowed her to proudly identify as a veteran and feel a sense of accomplishment for her service.
