Gardiner trained in nursing at the White Haven, Pennsylvania, sanatorium and graduated from there in 1934.

[1] Gardiner was assigned to the 349th Air Evacuation Group at Bowman Field, Kentucky.

She became a Second Lieutenant and served in Alaska with Flight A of the 805th Medical Air Evacuation Transport Squadron.

[2] Gardiner was killed when the aircraft crashed near Naknek, Alaska,[1] while on a medical evacuation mission on July 27, 1943.

[2] Gardiner was part of a group of nurses that "covered 3,500,000 air miles, evacuating over 2,500 cases, all without injury or loss of a single patient", according to the U. S. Army Medical Department.