CRMC-West 214 E. 23 St. Cheyenne, WY 82001
CRMC-East 2600 E. 18 St. Cheyenne, WY 82001
Health & Fitness 1620 E. Pershing, Cheyenne, WY 82001

(307) 634-CARE

Frances Warren Pershing

If you walk out the north entrance of the West building and turn east for three blocks, you notice that 24th Street comes to a dead end at Lakeview Cemetery. It's an old and historic cemetery, and resting on its peaceful, wooded grounds are pioneers, statesmen and figures from Wyoming's past.

As you walk through the main entrance and look off to the south, you can see a rough-cut, granite monolith guarding a cluster of graves.

This is the Warren family plot. Resting side by side are several generations of the Warren family and, with them, a large portion of the history of Cheyenne Regional Medical Center.

The year was 1915. President Woodrow Wilson was working to keep an isolationist America out of the great war in Europe. It was in that year that 128 Americans, many of them women and children were killed as the Lusitania sank within sight of the coast of Ireland, torpedoed by a German u-boat. As America watched World War I unfold across the Atlantic, we were dealing with problems of our own.

General John J. Pershing left his wife and four children at the Presidio Army Base in San Francisco to assume command at Fort Bliss, Texas where the United States Army was trying to track down and capture Pancho Villa, whose raids into that border state were creating diplomatic tension between the United States and Mexico.

In San Francisco, the general's young wife (she was twenty years his junior) was looking after their four children and waiting for her husband's return. Married late in life, General Pershing and his bride, the daughter of U. S. Senator from Wyoming, Francis E. Warren, had four children in quick succession -- three girls and a boy -- Helen Elizabeth, born in 1906, Ann Orr, born in 1908, Francis Warren, born in 1909, and Mary Margaret, born in 1912.

When it became clear that the problems in Texas were going to take some time, the General sent word to his wife to pack up the children and join him in Fort Bliss. The family would be together again after a lengthy separation.

It was the night before their departure that tragedy struck. As the family slept, a family started in the general's quarters. Hot coals spilled out of a grate onto the highly-polished floor of the general's quarters. Smoke filled the house, and servants raced to the family's bedrooms to try to save Frances Pershing and her children. They found them lying on the floor near the bedroom door -- the mother and her three daughters and her son. Frantically, the staff carried them out of the house and onto the lawn, and immediately tried to resuscitate the five victims. Only the boy, Warren, responded.

Frances Warren Pershing, oldest child of Francis E. Warren, and her daughters , Helen Elizabeth, age 8, Ann Orr, age 7, and Mary Margaret, age 3 had, in the words of the published newspaper reports, "passed beyond the benefit of earthly aid".

Accounts of the fire and the cause of death for the four members of the Pershing family varied. This was the age of yellow journalism -- when many reporters made their reputations by exaggerating the details of sensational stories to the point of creating fictionalized accounts. While some stories referred to the "charred remains" of the general's family members, the truth is Frances Warren Pershing and her three daughters died of smoke inhalation.

Upon receiving a telegraph at Fort Bliss, the general was beside himself in anguish. A soldier's soldier, he'd had nothing else in his life before meeting and marrying the lovely Frances Warren in Washington, D.C. in 1905. He made the long and painful train ride back to San Francisco with a broken heart -- grateful that his son was still alive and recovering, but devastated by the loss of all else that he held dear.

The story of the death of General Pershing's wife and daughters made headlines across the nation, and the funeral in her home town of Cheyenne, Wyoming was perhaps the single biggest event in the city's 48-year history. The Pershing's established a family plot in Lakeview Cemetery and buried the three girls side-by-side next to their mother. Fourteen years later, Francis E. Warren was buried beside his granddaughters in the family plot.

On the wall of CRMC-West's Auditorium A are oil portraits of Frances Warren Pershing and the general. Beside them is another frame which holds a small photograph of Frances Warren and her three oldest children, a baby (Warren) held in her arms. Also in the frame is a photograph of her famous father and Warren Richardson, a colorful individual in his own right and a close family friend. Enclosed in this montage of photos is the appreciation card Francis E. Warren sent to Warren Richardson following the funeral:

Cheyenne, Wyoming
September 14, 1915
My dear Friends:
Your expressions of love and sympathy, sent with the beautiful roses
for my loved ones snatched from me to such an untimely end, were most comforting, and very deeply appreciated.
Please accept from me and mine our sincere thanks, and gratitude
beyond words.
Yours,
F. E. Warren

As the hundreds of mourners who attended the graveside service at Lakeview Cemetery walked to their homes, some of them must have passed the old county hospital at the corner of 23rd and Evans. The ranch-style wooden structure was thirty-three years old now, tired and worn out. A decade earlier, the frame structure had been in such bad shape, the women of St. Mark's Episcopal Church had taken it upon themselves to come in and fix the place up. In recognition of their efforts, they had been given the right to re-name the county hospital "St. John's."

Even with the efforts of volunteers, Cheyenne and Laramie County needed a new hospital. The fire at the Presidio and the death of Frances Warren and her three daughters began a chain of events that would culminate in making a new hospital possible.

The romance of Frances Warren and John J. Pershing

Back to History Page

Disclaimer - CRMC's core values are to provide quality patient care and outstanding patient satisfaction to all our patients. Part of providing quality patient care and outstanding patient satisfaction is respecting your privacy rights and maintaining the confidentiality of your medical records. For more information on patient privacy please read our patient privacy policy. CRMC will not use or disclose your health information for any purpose not described in this Notice without your written authorization.

Health information provided on Cheyenne Regional Medical Center's web page is intended as a guideline and not as a specific medical protocol. Every actual medical situation - emergency or non-emergency - is unique to each individual, and requires the clinical judgment of a qualified physician. For more information, or clarification, we recommend that individuals contact their personal physician.

Our Web site may include information and other material prepared by other sources. We also link to other Internet sites and resources. This information and links are provided as a courtesy. We are not responsible for the availability, updating, and accuracy of any information provided on these outside sites or for the privacy or security of these outside sites.

The information on this Web site is general in nature and is not intended as a substitute for consultation with a doctor and a particular treatment plan. The material provided is not intended to create, and the receipt of it does not constitute, a doctor-patient relationship. Should you have any health-care-related question, you should contact a doctor and arrange a consultation. Any e-mail generated from this Web site may not be secure and is not intended to create, and the receipt of it does not constitute, a doctor-patient relationship. E-mail communication is not intended as a substitute for consultation with a doctor.