Christine Rae Webster

Their Story

Christine Rae Hendricks was born on August 8, 1966 to Donald and Daye-Ann (Olson) Hendricks in Rock Island, Illinois. Hendricks attended and graduated from Rock Island’s Alleman High School in 1984.^[1] A year later, Hendricks enlisted in the United States Navy to serve her country abroad. She graduated from the Recruit Training Command in Orlando, Florida the following May.^[2] Two months later, she graduated from the basic yeoman course at the Naval Technical Training Center in Meridian, Mississippi.^[3] Hendricks would spend the rest of her military career utilizing her yeoman training to aid the fleet.

As a Navy yeoman, Hendricks served in an administrative network that worked day and night to keep the Navy operating. The Navy maintains hundreds of thousands of sailors, and nearly five hundred ships. In order to ensure that all of those moving parts are cooperating efficiently, the Navy trains yeomen to handle the secretarial duties necessary to maintain good communication along the chain of command. Yeomen could be considered the glue that holds the various parts of the Navy together, and need both interpersonal and administrative skills to perform their role effectively:

[Yeomen] should also be people oriented and enjoy working as part of a team assisting others and be able to clearly communicate ideas and information orally and in writing. Ability to keep accurate records, do detailed work and perform repetitive tasks is important. Resourcefulness, curiosity and a good memory are also useful.^[4]

Given Hendricks’ affable personality and passion for serving her country, she is sure to have been a great asset to the Navy as a yeoman. Hendricks also met her husband Jay Webster while serving in the Navy.

Following her military service, Webster continued to serve her country as a Veterans Affairs psychology nurse. Webster attended Black Hawk College and Walden University to earn a bachelor’s degree in nursing. She used her degree to further serve her country and fellow veterans as a nurse at the Las Vegas VA hospital. VA nurses are important physical and mental healthcare personnel for Veterans, providing top notch care and advocacy:

VA nursing practice provides Veteran Health Care across a continuum of services for acute and chronic conditions… VA nurses are integrally involved in the greater federal, national, and international communities of nursing, advocating for informed nursing practice so VA can constantly improve nursing care for our nation’s heroes.^[5]

Webster was a phenomenal nurse, and brought a warm and inviting personality to the job that she loved: “She had a passion for her country and truly loved her job. She had a gift for bringing people into the family, whether it be her daughters’ friends or co-workers that didn’t have anywhere to go for holiday meals.”^[6] It is clear from Webster’s choice of career and caring personality that her life’s mission was selfless service to others.

Christine Rae Webster tragically passed away at the age of 53 on October 1, 2019 at Froedtert Hospital in Milwaukee. She was survived by her husband, three daughters, three grandchildren, parents, two sisters, several nieces and nephews, and her beloved dog, Chloe.^[7] She leaves behind a legacy of service to both her country and mankind, aptly conveyed by her epitaph: “FAITHFUL TO GOD COUNTRY AND FAMILY.”^[8]