Last updated: April 10, 2020
Person
Phoebe Yates Levy Pember
University of North Carolina
Quick Facts
Significance:
Hospital matron at Chimborazo Hospital in Richmond, Va.
Place Of Birth:
Charleston, SC
Date Of Birth:
August 18, 1823
Place Of Death:
Pittsburgh, PA
Date Of Death:
March 4, 1913
Place Of Burial:
Savannah, GA
Cemetery Name:
Laurel Grove Cemetery
Phoebe Yates Levy Pember was a member of a prominent Jewish-American family from Charleston, South Carolina and later Savannah, Georgia, and served as a nurse and administrator of Chimborazo Hospital at Richmond, Virginia from December 1862 until the end of the war. At a time when few women occupied leadership positions, Pember directed a division of what was then the largest military hospital in the world. She was widely respected for her management skills and personal integrity. Her memoirs, published in 1879 as "A Southern Woman's Story," detail her life through daily anecdotes during the war years.