Blossom Bernstein Ellis (1929-2012) of Brooklyn, New York, served in the United States Air Force Nurse Corps and Reserves from 1952 to 1962. Blossom B. Ellis was born in Brooklyn, New York, on 25 October 1929, one of five children born to Isadore Bernstein, a Russian immigrant, and Florence M. Bernstein. She graduated from Brooklyn High School for Homemaking and then attended nursing school at Maimonides Hospital in Brooklyn. Upon completing the nursing program, she continued working there as a general floor duty nurse. In November 1952, Ellis was commissioned into the United States Air Force and was sent to Gunter Air Force Base in Montgomery, Alabama, for basic training. She was subsequently stationed at Bergstrom Air Force Base in Austin, Texas; Royal Air Force Station Greenham Common in Berkshire, England; and Castle Air Force Base in Atwater, California. Ellis met her future husband, William "Bill" Ellis, when she was in England, and they married on 16 June 1957. She ended her active duty status in September 1957 and was discharged from the reserves in June 1962. The Ellises had three children and lived in various places in the United States and abroad due to Bill Ellis' career in the United States Air Force. When he retired in 1974, the family settled in Liberty, North Carolina, where Ellis worked as a nurse at Randolph Hospital, Kellwood hosiery plant in Siler City, and Clapps Nursing Home. She retired from nursing in the late 1990s. Ellis died 18 November, 2012.
