Dr. Pauline Eastham celebrated her 100th birthday with the American Red Cross. The Knoxville chapter celebrated her centennial by dedicating a room to her inside its Disaster Cycle Services Center, honoring 75 years of volunteer service that stretched from World War II to Hurricane Katrina.
According to wvlt.tv, Eastham celebrated her 100th birthday at the Knoxville Red Cross, where the room was dedicated in her honor after 75 years as a volunteer. Her service record includes disaster-relief efforts tied to the September 11 attacks and Hurricane Katrina, the station reports. As detailed by WATE 6 On Your Side, Eastham served as a disaster mental health worker following 9/11 and also responded to the 1997 Midwest floods.
A Service Record That Started Before Pearl Harbor
Eastham's connection to the Red Cross predates the United States' entry into World War II. The station notes her Red Cross service started as a Girl Scout, hemming diapers for bundles for Britain before the U.S. entered the war. Per WATE, she began helping others as a child by supporting Bundles for Britain, part of a broader wartime effort that had young volunteers distributing diapers for women in Britain during the conflict.
Decades later, Eastham told WATE she anticipated being called by the Red Cross to respond after watching the September 11 attacks unfold on television — a moment that led to her work as a disaster mental health worker in the aftermath. Her volunteer career unfolded alongside a professional life in mental health; per WATE, she served as the first female assistant superintendent at Eastern State Psychiatric Hospital, an institution that was later renamed Lakeshore Mental Health Institute.
Local Officials Mark the Milestone
Knoxville Fire Chief Stan Sharp read a proclamation honoring Eastham's legacy during the celebration, the station's report states. WATE adds that Eastham also received a proclamation from Knoxville Mayor Indya Kincannon recognizing her for supporting people during crises. Sharon Hudson thanked Eastham for her time, talent and treasure, according to WATE's account of the ceremony.
Eastham's decades of community work have drawn formal recognition well beyond this year's celebration. WATE reports she was named Knox Area Mental Health Association Volunteer of the Year in 1972, received an award from the East Tennessee Human Resources Agency in 1992, earned the Tennessee Commission on Aging Service Award in 2000, and was recognized by the Nursing Home Ombudsman Program in 2003 for her contribution to nursing home advocacy.
Volunteers Remain the Backbone of Disaster Response
Eastham's lifetime of service reflects a pattern that defines the organization nationally. Volunteers constitute about 90 percent of the American Red Cross workforce, according to redcross.org. That volunteer force makes it possible for the organization to respond to an average of 60,000 disasters every year, most of them home and apartment fires, the Red Cross notes, with volunteers traveling to provide food, shelter, comfort and care for families affected by major disasters such as fires, hurricanes and tornadoes.
For a chapter in East Tennessee, dedicating a room in its Disaster Cycle Services Center to a single volunteer is a tangible way of honoring that broader reliance on people willing to give decades of their lives to the mission. Eastham's own path — from a wartime Girl Scout hemming diapers to a disaster mental health worker after 9/11 — stands as a rare, century-spanning example of exactly that commitment.
