In 2003, she was inducted into the Ohio Military Hall of Fame.

Though women served in the military during Vietnam, they didn’t always get the same respect or recognition as men who served, Powell said.

“She was just as much a hero as all of the veterans,” Powell said.

“She should be honored for her service to America. That she was willing to go and serve in the capacity she did: healing. She didn’t go into battle, but she battled for her patients.”

In the 50 years since Lane’s death, women have gained more equality in the military. They have opportunities now they didn’t have during the Vietnam era, she said.

It wasn’t long after Lane’s death that Canton began plans to honor her.

“Fund Drive Set for Memorial to Viet Heroine,” read a May 16, 1971, headline in the Canton Repository. Canton City Council approved plans for the memorial, which would be inscribed with the names of all Stark County residents killed in the war, later that month.

The drive set a goal of $15,000 for a bronze statue. Aultman offered land for the monument.

The Denver hospital where Lane began her military career had already dedicated the Lane Recovery Suite in her honor. And a plaque was placed at the evacuation hospital where she was killed.

After months of fundraisers, door-to-door campaigning and donations, the statue was finished in 1972.

On May 29, 1973, about 250 people gathered in a courtyard at Aultman for the monument’s dedication.

“She has paid the supreme sacrifice and we join in tribute to someone we have loved; she was one of our own,” eulogized Canton Mayor Stanley Cmich.

The memorial was later moved to Aultman’s Seventh Street entrance where it remains today. The hospital has exhibits dedicated to Lane in its main lobby and inside the school of nursing.

“It’s interesting to me that she was just a simple girl from Canton South who made a huge impact,” Donnenwirth said.

The college ensures that new students know about Lane and her sacrifice.

“Her legacy is alive and we certainly honor and respect that here at Aultman,” she said. “I hope it goes on a long time. It certainly will while I’m dean.”

Donnenwirth has spoken with Aultman nursing alumni who went to school with Lane. They remember her as being smart, quiet and introverted.

“I haven’t found one person say a negative word or negative thought about her,” she said. “She just sounds like a sweet person and looking, at 21 or 22, for a little adventure in life.”

“I’d like to have a beer with her,” she added.

Museums, including the Wm. McKinley Presidential Library & Museum in Canton, have gathered artifacts from Lane’s life. This year, the U.S. Army Medical Department Museum at Joint Base San Antonio-Fort Sam Houston opened an exhibit about Lane.

Lane’s legacy also isn’t forgotten in Vietnam.

The Sharon Anne Lane Foundation built a hospital in Chu Lai, near where Lane was killed, in 2002.

Powell, a member of the now-closed organization, remembers stepping off the plane in Vietnam worried that they’d be greeted with weapons. But the Vietnamese people embraced them.

The facility is dedicated to women and children in the region. At the time, a pregnant woman who needed a caesarean section would have to be transported by bicycle to a hospital down the mountainside. Now, they can receive all the care they need at the clinic, Powell said.

The hospital is thriving, Powell said.

A fitting tribute to someone who’s legacy is “her kind compassionate consideration for all people.