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Elinor H. McHale | Nurse and veteran, 89

Elinor Hastie McHale, a nurse and decorated World War II veteran formerly of Wilmington, died of heart failure at Rosemont Presbyterian Village on Monday, two days before her 90th birthday.

Mrs. McHale was a supervisor in surgical units in Australia, New Guinea and the Dutch Indies and was awarded the Bronze Star for meritorious service.

A native of Scotland, she immigrated to the United States with her family when she was 5, and grew up in western Pennsylvania.

She graduated from the Abington Hospital School of Nursing and completed training in operating-room management at Cook County Hospital in Chicago.

In 1946, she was discharged from the Army as a captain and married Donald G. McHale, who had been chief of surgery in her unit. While raising their children in Wilmington, she was a Red Cross volunteer, led the parents association at Ursuline Academy, and was active with the parents association at St. Edmund's Academy. Her husband died in 1974.

Mrs. McHale was an avid bridge player and reader. She volunteered in the library at Rosemont Presbyterian Village, where she had lived since 2002.

She is survived by a son, Barry; daughters Linda Smith and Carol; three grandchildren; and a sister.

A Funeral Mass will be said at 1 p.m. today at Our Mother of Good Counsel Church, Pennswood Road and Lancaster Avenue, Bryn Mawr.