"Steve W." wrote in
:

http://www.dailynews.com/portlet/art...y.jsp?contentI
temRelationshipId=2961390

Pam Murphy, the widow of Audie Murphy, was involved in the Sepulveda
VA hospital and care center over the course of 35 years, treating
every veteran who visited the facility as if they were a VIP. Pam
Murphy died last week at the age of 90.

After Audie died, they all became her boys. Every last one of them.

Any soldier or Marine who walked into the Sepulveda VA hospital and
care center in the last 35 years got the VIP treatment from Pam
Murphy. The widow of Audie Murphy – the most decorated soldier in
World War II – would walk the hallways with her clipboard in hand
making sure her boys got to see a specialist or doctor — STAT. If they
didn't, watch out. Her boys weren't Medal of Honor recipients or movie
stars like Audie, but that didn't matter to Pam. They had served their
country. That was good enough for her. She never called a veteran by
his first name. It was always "Mister." Respect came with the job.
"Nobody could cut through VA red tape faster than Mrs. Murphy," said
veteran Stephen Sherman, speaking for thousands of veterans she
befriended over the years. "Many times I watched her march a veteran
who had been waiting more than an hour right into the doctor's office.
She was even reprimanded a few times, but it didn't matter to Mrs.
Murphy. "Only her boys mattered. She was our angel."



Last week, Sepulveda VA's angel for the last 35 years died peacefully
in her sleep at age 90.

"She was in bed watching the Laker game, took one last breath, and
that was it," said Diane Ruiz, who also worked at the VA and cared for
Pam in the last years of her life in her Canoga Park apartment. It
was the same apartment Pam moved into soon after Audie died in a plane
crash on Memorial Day weekend in 1971.
Audie Murphy died broke, squandering million of dollars on gambling,
bad investments, and yes, other women. "Even with the adultery and
desertion at the end, he always remained my hero," Pam told me.

She went from a comfortable ranch-style home in Van Nuys where she
raised two sons to a small apartment - taking a clerk's job at the
nearby VA to support herself and start paying off her faded movie star
husband's debts.
At first, no one knew who she was. Soon, though, word spread through
the VA that the nice woman with the clipboard was Audie Murphy's
widow. It was like saying Patton had just walked in the front door.
Men with tears in their eyes walked up to her and gave her a hug.
"Thank you," they said, over and over.

The first couple of years, I think the hugs were more for Audie's
memory as a war hero. The last 30 years, they were for Pam.

She hated the spotlight. One year I asked her to be the focus of a
Veteran's Day column for all the work she had done. Pam just shook her
head no. "Honor them, not me," she said, pointing to a group of
veterans down the hallway. "They're the ones who deserve it."

The vets disagreed. Mrs. Murphy deserved the accolades, they said.
Incredibly, in 2002, Pam's job was going to be eliminated in budget
cuts. She was considered "excess staff." "I don't think helping cut
down on veterans' complaints and showing them the respect they
deserve, should be considered excess staff," she told me. Neither did
the veterans. They went ballistic, holding a rally for her outside the
VA gates. Pretty soon, word came down from the top of the VA. Pam
Murphy was no longer considered "excess staff." She remained working
full time at the VA until 2007 when she was 87. "The last time she
was here was a couple of years ago for the conference we had for
homeless veterans," said Becky James, coordinator of the VA's Veterans
History Project. Pam wanted to see if there was anything she could do
to help some more of her boys.


Funeral services for Pam Murphy held Friday at 2:30 p.m. in the chapel
at Forest Lawn, Hollywood Hills, 6300 Forest Lawn Drive, Los Angeles.



Thanks for posting this, Steve.