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East Tennessee Nurse Honor Guard
Nurses honoring nurses
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Photo Gallery

Photo gallery

Moments from services, ceremonies, fundraisers and time spent together.

Our Photos

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At a service

The Nightingale lamp, the white rose and the nurse's cap are the heart of every Final Tribute.

Four East Tennessee Nurse Honor Guard members in white uniforms, capes and white gloves standing beside a large white floral arrangement at a service.
Standing for a fellow nurse
A nurse's cap, a single white rose, and a Nightingale lamp arranged on red fabric beside an engraved East Tennessee Nurse Honor Guard plaque.
The Nightingale lamp, the white rose, and the nurse's cap
Infographic titled Why We Present a White Rose, explaining that the white rose symbolizes purity, peace, reverence and remembrance, and closing with the words once a nurse, always a nurse.
Why we present a white rose

Honor cordon at the airport

Welcoming arriving veterans at the Knoxville airport, hands over hearts.

Honor guard members lined up along both sides of an airport concourse to form an honor cordon.
Standing an honor cordon at the Knoxville airport
Eight honor guard members standing in a row with hands over their hearts beside the terminal windows at night.
Hands over hearts as the flight arrives
Honor guard members standing with Air Force personnel in dress uniform inside an airport terminal.
Alongside Air Force personnel at the Knoxville airport
Honor guard members and Air Force personnel posed together in an airport terminal.
Honoring an arriving flight
A line of honor guard members in capes standing along the tall windows of an airport terminal.
Waiting at the terminal windows

Wreaths Across America

Laying remembrance wreaths on veterans' graves.

East Tennessee Nurse Honor Guard members in uniform and capes standing in a line beside rows of white headstones, each laid with an evergreen remembrance wreath, at a national cemetery on a bright winter day.
Among the wreathed graves
Rows of white military headstones on a hillside, each with an evergreen remembrance wreath and a red bow at its base, with people walking among them.
A wreath on every grave
The honor guard standing together beneath the United States, POW-MIA and Tennessee flags at a Wreaths Across America ceremony, with a crowd gathered behind them.
Beneath the flags
Honor guard members gathered outdoors with a guest at a Wreaths Across America ceremony while another member photographs them.
The guard at the ceremony
An East Tennessee Nurse Honor Guard member in white uniform and cape standing with a hand over the heart between two wreath-laid headstones at a national cemetery.
A hand over the heart among the wreaths
An honor guard member in uniform and cape shaking the hand of a veteran in a patched flight jacket at a Wreaths Across America ceremony.
Thanking a veteran

The guard together

Officers, group photographs and time with our chaplain and other chapters.

Members of the East Tennessee Nurse Honor Guard in white uniforms with red and navy capes, holding the chapter banner.
The East Tennessee Nurse Honor Guard
Five East Tennessee Nurse Honor Guard officers standing together in white uniforms with red and navy capes.
Chapter officers

From left to right: Christina Trentham, Vice President; Melanie Pfennigwerth, President; Jan Phillips, Administrative Secretary; Bridgette Caldwell, Associate Secretary; Gloria McMahan, Treasurer.

The chapter's earliest group photograph, members in white uniforms and capes gathered on a staircase.
One of the chapter's first group photographs
Five honor guard members in uniform standing with the chapter chaplain.
Members with Chaplain Dan Hix
A large group of nurse honor guard members from several chapters gathered together on a covered porch.
Gathering with nurse honor guard members from other chapters
The East Tennessee Nurse Honor Guard banner on a stand beside a United States flag.
The chapter banner
Two honor guard members in white uniforms and capes standing arm in arm indoors after a service.
Two members after a service
A member of the honor guard fastening the collar of another member's navy cape as the guard dresses for a service, garment bags laid over the sofa behind them.
Helping with the cape
Three honor guard members getting ready for a service, one helping another fasten a cape while a third looks on.
Getting ready together
Two honor guard members leaning together for a photograph, one of them wearing a red-and-navy cape.
Two members in uniform

Graduations and pinnings

Standing with new nurses at TCAT Jacksboro, Harriman and Oneida.

Honor guard members standing with nursing graduates and faculty at a graduation ceremony in a chapel.
TCAT Jacksboro nursing graduation
Five honor guard members standing in a classroom at the Tennessee College of Applied Technology, one holding an engraved East Tennessee Nurse Honor Guard plaque.
With the chapter plaque at TCAT
The TCAT Harriman nursing class of 2026 in white uniforms and caps, three of them kneeling at the front, with East Tennessee Nurse Honor Guard members in navy and red capes standing behind them at their pinning ceremony on 27 August 2026.
TCAT Harriman nursing class of 2026 — pinning, 27 August 2026
East Tennessee Nurse Honor Guard members in white uniforms with navy and red capes standing in a line across the front of a hall, with the TCAT Jacksboro nursing class of 2026 in white uniforms and purple-and-white stoles arranged on the staircase behind them on 28 August 2026.
TCAT Jacksboro nursing class of 2026 — 28 August 2026
The TCAT Oneida nursing class of 2026 standing in rows in a chapel beneath an organ, all in white uniforms and nurses' caps, each holding a small white Nightingale lamp, at their graduation on 29 August 2026.
TCAT Oneida nursing class of 2026 — 29 August 2026
Seven East Tennessee Nurse Honor Guard members in white uniforms, white caps and navy capes with red linings, standing in a line down a staircase beside a stained-glass window at the TCAT Oneida class of 2026 graduation.
The guard at the TCAT Oneida class of 2026 graduation

Fundraisers

Bake sales, craft fairs, smoked pork butts and holiday markets allow us to
purchase our supplies need to continue to honor our colleagues.

Honor guard members in uniform behind tables of baked goods under a stars and stripes canopy in a gymnasium.
Bake sale fundraiser
A fundraiser booth of baked goods set up beneath a stars and stripes canopy.
Our fundraiser booth
Flyer for the chapter's smoked pork butt fundraiser, thanking supporters and giving reheating directions, headed Honoring Nurses, Preserving Legacies.
Our Butts for a Cause smoked pork butt fundraiser
Flyer for a Holiday Marketplace craft fair at South Doyle High School gymnasium in South Knoxville, listing vendors, food trucks, concessions and live performances.
Holiday Marketplace where the chapter had a booth
Honor guard members in capes gathered around Santa Claus in front of a Christmas tree.
A holiday fundraiser with Santa
Two honor guard members in uniform standing on either side of Santa Claus beside a welcome sign.
Holiday visit with Santa
Five honor guard members in capes standing behind a red-draped raffle table of gift baskets in a school gymnasium in 2024.
Themed basket give away, 2024
A red-draped fundraiser table holding a donation box and framed information about the chapter, with honor guard members standing behind it in a gymnasium.
A fundraiser in the gymnasium

Christmas and celebrations

The chapter’s Christmas parties, and the birthdays we mark together.

Christmas parties, 2024 and 2025

Chapter members gathered around a long table at the 2024 Christmas party, some wearing holiday antlers.
Christmas party, 2024
Chapter members together at the 2025 Christmas party.
Christmas Party gifts
Chapter members in holiday sweaters at the 2025 Christmas party.
Cathy’s in the Spirit
A chapter member in a Santa outfit at the 2025 Christmas party.
Christmas party, 2025
A chapter member in a festive holiday sweater and headband at the 2025 Christmas party.
Bart and Vicky celebrating
A table of wrapped gifts and holiday decorations at the 2025 Christmas party.
Dottie is “getting her Christmas on”
A small Christmas tree trimmed with red ribbon and pinecone ornaments dressed as nurses in white caps.
The chapter's Christmas tree

Fourth birthday

A sheet cake iced in white with a blue piped border and red and blue balloons, lettered “Happy Birthday ETNHG!” in red, on a red tablecloth.
The fourth birthday cake
A meeting room set for the celebration: the birthday cake and a folded navy throw on a long red-draped table, with the chapter’s photograph display board standing behind.
The room set for the celebration
A trifold display board headed “East Tennessee Nurse Honor Guard — Nurses Honoring Nurses, Est. 2021” and covered with photographs from the chapter’s services, with a folded navy throw on the red-draped table in front of it.
The chapter’s display board
A folded navy fleece throw embroidered in red with a caduceus and the words “East Tennessee Nurse Honor Guard”, resting in front of the display board.
The embroidered chapter throw

Fifth birthday

Members of the guard gathered in front of the chapter’s display boards, each holding up five fingers for the chapter’s fifth birthday.
Five years — the guard marking the chapter’s fifth birthday
Two trifold display boards covered with photographs from the chapter’s services — one headed “Call to Duty”, the other “East Tennessee Nurse Honor Guard — Nurses Honoring Nurses, Est. 2021” — behind a table laid with a “Thank You Nurse” cloth, matching plates and a tray of cupcakes.
The display boards and the cupcake table

Fun times

Honor guard members in uniform lifting the hems of their uniforms to show off matching holiday socks.
Crazy Socks to lighten the mood
Honor guard members in capes waving and laughing together indoors.
Fun times together
A member of the East Tennessee Nurse Honor Guard, in white uniform and navy cape, sitting at a table threading a needle to mend a white glove before a ceremony.
When there's a hole in a glove.....
The same member looking up from the table with the mended white glove in hand, needle and thread put away, ready for the ceremony.
You whip out your needle and thread before the ceremony

Living Tributes

Honoring nurses while they are still here to see it. Thirteen tributes are shown in full on the Living Tributes page.

Four honor guard members in white uniforms and red and navy capes standing together at the Living Tribute for Mary Buttram, RN, on 6 April 2026.
At a Living Tribute, April 2026
Seven honor guard members standing in formation in white uniforms and red and navy capes at the Living Tribute for Debra Foster, RN, on 27 February 2026.
The guard assembled for a Living Tribute, February 2026
See all Living Tributes

Parades

Marching behind the chapter banner through our own communities.

Honor guard members in capes carrying the East Tennessee Nurse Honor Guard banner down a wet street during the Maryville parade.
The Maryville parade
Four honor guard members holding the chapter banner, decorated with red bows, at the 2024 Maryville Christmas parade.
Maryville Christmas parade, 2024

Conventions and conferences

Nurse honor guard chapters from across the country meet to compare notes and share what works.

A large group of nurse honor guard members from many chapters standing in rows on a lawn at the 2024 national convention.
Tennessee Nurse Honor Guard members at the National Convention
Four East Tennessee Nurse Honor Guard members in white uniforms and red and navy capes standing together on a misty lawn at the 2024 national convention.
Our members at the 2024 national convention
A commemorative photograph titled National Nurses Honor Guard Coalition Conference 2024, showing several hundred honor guard members assembled outdoors in white uniforms and red capes.
National Nurses Honor Guard Coalition Conference, 2024
A full conference room of nurse honor guard members seated at long tables at the 2025 Tennessee convention.
The Tennessee state convention, 2025

Information booths and outreach

Making sure nurses, families and hospital staff know the guard exists before they need us.

Four East Tennessee Nurse Honor Guard members in uniform and capes standing at an information booth, beside a display board of chapter photographs headed Nurses Honoring Nurses and a table draped with the chapter banner.
The chapter's information booth and display board
Four honor guard members in uniform standing beside a red-draped information table in a hospital lobby in 2024.
Information booth at a local hospital, 2024
Two honor guard members in capes behind an information table set with a white rose, a Nightingale lamp and printed information about the chapter, in a hospital lobby.
Our table, set with the lamp and a rose
A large group of Hearth Hospice staff standing with two honor guard members in full uniform after a demonstration of the Final Tribute ceremony.
A mock ceremony for the Hearth Hospice team
Flyer for the Run for the Scrubs 5K 2026, from the LMU Caylor School of Nursing at Lincoln Memorial University, headed “Look who’s joining us!” It reads “We’re excited to have amazing community vendors at this year’s race” and lists National Fitness, Stretch Fix Knox, the East Tennessee Nurse Honor Guard — Nurses Honoring Nurses — and Saving Grace Women’s Home, “Do not suffer in silence. Help. Hope. Healing.” It also carries the Sigma Global Nursing Excellence Epsilon Sigma at-Large Chapter logo and closes “and several of our amazing sponsors!”
Run for the Scrubs 5K, 2026 — the chapter among the community vendors

Butts for a Cause, 2026

Smoked pork butts prepared by the guard and collected at Lincoln Memorial University on 2 July 2026.

About twenty chapter volunteers in matching light blue t-shirts standing together outside Lincoln Memorial University on Butts for a Cause collection day, 2026.
The volunteers on collection day
A long table stacked with foil trays of smoked pork ready for collection, draped with the East Tennessee Nurse Honor Guard banner reading Nurses Honoring Nurses.
The collection table, ready to go
Chapter volunteers in light blue t-shirts gathered beneath the Lincoln Memorial University sign on Butts for a Cause collection day, 2026.
Outside Lincoln Memorial University
The thank-you card sent home with each smoked pork butt, showing a chapter group photograph, reheating directions, and the note that the pork was prepared on 1 July 2026.
The thank-you card that went home with every order

The guard in service

Standing for fellow nurses at funeral homes, chapels and gravesides across East Tennessee.

Two East Tennessee Nurse Honor Guard members in white uniforms and red and navy capes standing together, holding a red rose and a white rose.
Two members with the roses
A lit Nightingale lamp, a pale rose and a banded white nurse's cap arranged on red fabric.
The lamp, the rose and the cap
Seven honor guard members standing in formation with white roses and a Nightingale lamp in a funeral home chapel.
The guard at a funeral home
Six honor guard members in formation, two of them carrying the Nightingale lamp and a lit candle, at a memorial service.
The lamp carried into a service
Three honor guard members in white uniforms and capes, one holding the Nightingale lamp, standing in a funeral home foyer.
Three members with the lamp
Six honor guard members standing together at a service, one of them holding the Nightingale lamp.
Members preparing for a service
Four honor guard members in white uniforms and capes standing beside a tall white floral arrangement at a service.
Standing beside the flowers
Ten honor guard members standing shoulder to shoulder in white uniforms and red and navy capes in a funeral home chapel.
The guard in formation
Seven honor guard members standing in a line in white uniforms and capes beneath a framed painting at a memorial service.
At a memorial service
Seven honor guard members in white uniforms and red and navy capes standing in formation against a plain wall at a service.
Standing for a fellow nurse
Seven honor guard members in formation, one holding the Nightingale lamp and one a book, at a service.
The lamp and the book
Nine honor guard members standing in a line in white uniforms and red and navy capes in a funeral home lobby.
In a funeral home
Eight honor guard members standing in formation before a wooden cross at the front of a chapel.
In a chapel
Honor guard members in white uniforms and capes standing in a line across a wooden floor before a service begins.
Before the service begins
Seven honor guard members standing shoulder to shoulder in white uniforms and red and navy capes against a brick wall.
The guard in formation
Nine honor guard members in white uniforms and capes standing in formation beside draped windows at a memorial service.
At a memorial service
Honor guard members in white uniforms and capes standing together in a family sitting room before a tribute.
A tribute in a family home
Three honor guard members in white uniforms, capes and white gloves standing beside the flowers at a graveside service on a hillside.
A graveside service
Eight honor guard members standing in a line on the grass beneath trees at a graveside tribute.
A graveside tribute
Six honor guard members standing in line before a reclaimed-wood wall in a funeral home, one holding the Nightingale lamp and another a white rose.
In formation before the service
Nine honor guard members standing in line in a funeral home lobby, one of them in a white dress uniform holding a white rose tied with ribbon.
In the funeral home lobby
Honor guard members standing before a fireplace at a Final Tribute, beneath a memorial screen remembering Jerry C. Black, with a Christmas tree lit beside them.
Standing for a fellow nurse at Christmas
Eleven honor guard members standing shoulder to shoulder in a funeral home family room, one carrying the Nightingale lamp.
The guard in formation
Twelve honor guard members standing together at the front of a chapel, one holding the Nightingale lamp and another a white rose.
With the lamp and the white rose
Five honor guard members in a funeral home lobby, one holding the Nightingale lamp, another a service folder and a third a white rose.
Carrying the Nightingale lamp
Two honor guard members in capes standing beside a staircase in a funeral home before a tribute, one of them holding a white rose.
Two members before the tribute

At the graveside

The last stretch of a Final Tribute, at the graveside and in the mausoleum.

Nine honor guard members in capes standing at a graveside beneath a bare tree on a foggy morning, one of them holding a white rose tied with red, white and blue ribbon.
A graveside tribute on a foggy morning
Nine honor guard members in white uniforms, white nurses’ caps and navy capes lined in red, standing in a row at a graveside beneath trees on a sunny day. One holds a white rose tied with red, white and blue ribbon, one the dark wooden presentation box, and one the white Nightingale lamp.
A graveside tribute on a sunny day
Four honor guard members in white uniforms and red-and-navy capes standing on the lawn of a memorial park under a cloudy sky.
At a memorial park
Five honor guard members standing in line on a walkway outside a funeral home on an autumn afternoon.
Arriving for a service
An honor guard member reading from a wooden lectern in a mausoleum while other members stand alongside the memorial niches.
A tribute in the mausoleum
The honor guard standing together in front of a mausoleum wall of engraved memorial niches decorated with small flags and wreaths.
Before the memorial wall

Photographs are published with the consent of the members shown. If you would like a photograph removed, please contact us and we will take it down.

Read about the Final Tribute See our activities
For Families and Funeral Directors

Request a Final Tribute

Call us and we will take it from here. We coordinate directly with your funeral home, and there is never a charge to the family.

Melanie Pfennigwerth, RN
865.310.6183
Christina Trentham, LPN, CRCFA, CDP
865.293.6563
Request a Final Tribute Email Us