Massachusetts General Hospital School of Nursing - Yearbook (Boston, MA)

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Rita Timms and that nice Tech man she married had dinner with us Sunday evening. Stella O’Mara and Evelyn Cooney were supposed to come, but at the last minute found they had to take relief. They have both worked at the Phillips House since their dis- charge from the Army after the war. Jeanne Parant and her Lt. Commander dropped in to say goodby before leaving for the Phillipines where they will be stationed for quite a while. Jeanne was wearing a beautiful mink coat and looked as lovely as ever. She told me that Marianne Orvis is finishing her internship at Johns Hopkins this month and plans to come to M.G.H. as Assistant Resident in Pediatrics. Did you hear of Pat Campbell’s brilliant marriage? She’s living in England in an old Cheshire Estate, and is quite active in English nursing circles. She has introduced many of the methods taught us by Miss Perkins to English schools where they have been very well received. Helen Middleditch is teaching sciences at the Presbyterian Hospital in New York and is doing a very good job of it, too. Jean Ross is still in the Army, and has received another promotion. This makes her a captain, now. Sasha Striga has a good position as an industrial nurse. Virginia Hanlon and AI Gelus have also gone into this field. Evelyn Husson is teaching home nursing and hygiene at the exclusive Parkhurst Boarding School. Pris Powers and Charlie sent us an invitation to Charlie Jr.’s sixth birthday party. She said she expected Mickey Johnson and her husband and their two children. Mickey married a minister, you know, and although sometimes it’s difficult to imagine her as, a staid President of the Ladies’ Aid and Foreign Mission Society, she seems to be very happy doing it. (I hear she’s also the guiding light of the Young People’s Christian Endeavour). Life certainly is full of little surprises. I spent a weekend in Connecticut recently as the guest of Jean Roberts and her husband. They have a beautiful home and five lovely children. Jean seems to have been made for this type of life, and between her home, church, and Red Cross interests is kept very busy, indeed. Ronnie Bryne and Mary Hathaway spent the weekend there, too, and we had a great time talking over the good old days. Ronnie is an office nurse in Boston, while Mary is specialling in Hartford. Thanks for the news about Shirley Mansfield. I was glad to hear that she and Red like it in Alaska. I hope her taste in ski suits is as good as it used to be. Do you ever hear from Rita Carr? The last I heard — she was bound for Europe as a hostess on an Atlantic Clipper. That girl always had adventure in her blood. She came through her last plane crash without a scar — a lot better than she came through her mishaps with the elevator in Thayer and the sterilizer on White 9. I guess Ann Barrett is going to stay in North Africa with Bob after all. I don’t know what she’ll do without Concord to come home to — but if we know Ann — she’ll find a way. Martha Metcalfe is still supervisor of the Delivery Room at Richardson House, while Ruth Brown, Maryalice Barron and Helen Krasnecki hold relative positions on the B.L.I. side. Brucie is supervisor on C D3 at B.L.I. and helps make the days go a lot faster for the new mothers with her hearty laughter and ever ready jokes. I read an article in the American Journal of Nursing by Felicita Boselli on the advance- ment of nursing in England since the war. She feels that the interchange of British and American methods during the war has done much to advance nursing in both countries. She proposes an exchange system by which an American nurse and a British nurse change places for a year, and bring back to their countries any new developments or techniques of nursing from which they would benefit. Elaine Noyes is to be the first to try this system out — and we all hope it works. As for me — I’m still struggling to bring up a family and at the same time set the world on fire as an author. So far I’ve had much better results with the family. The only thing I’ve had published, other than a few poems, has been my Autobiography of a Nurse”. The children are as full of mischief as possible. Right now they’re upstairs toasting marsh- mallows in the fireplace. From the noise they’re making I think I had better dash up be- fore they start toasting each other. Do write soon, and thanks again for your letter. Sincerely, Ruth Johnston Page T hirty-one

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Class Prophecy Elmwood Ridge, Concord, Mass., January 1, 1953. Dear Jackie, Many thanks for your very welcome and newsy letter — it found me in a most receptive mood. I’m glad to hear you’re doing well as Chief Nurse in the Department of Aviation at Helmer’s Field. How do you like Oklahoma — does it come up to your youthful dreams of the golden west? I ' m happy to hear those dreams are finally coming true. I had a letter from Helen Finn last week. She is now on her way to Minnesota to join Nettie Garrisson and her husband in establishing a new Public Health unit. Fran Malone is going to handle the business end of things. I know this venture is bound to be a success with so many capable minds to back it up. Connie Smith spent the holidays with us, as usual. She hasn’t missed one of our New Year’s Eve parties in almost ten years. She is still in the Navy — and at present! is stationed at the Marine Hospital in Brighton. She told me she plans to turn in her uniform for a housedress and apron in June. I can’t tell you any more because she wants to surprise you — but I can say that she intends to be his scrub nurse for years to come. I went to Pat Stylianos’s latest concert at Symphony Hall and was so proud to be able to say I knew her when. Her voice was glorious and she received an overwhelming ovation from the appreciative audiences. I sat with Hope and Bill Herlihy and two of their children. After the concert we all had supper with Mr. and Mrs. Mooney (Edith Dasey — remember?). It seemed so much like old times — sitting around a table while Dasey kept us in stitches with one of her inimitable stories. Mully and Tommy sent us a Christmas card from Palm Beach. They said they had been to see Nickie who is doing Public Health in Florida and she sends her best to all of us. I also got a Christmas card from Gen Koziol who is still at the Chung- king Base Hospital in China. It has been bombed six times within the last few months. If the Japs knew Gen’s determination the way we do, they’d realize that it takes a lot more than a few scarces to make her relinquish anything she starts out to do. She said she’s still trying to interest Mary Sheehan and Tony Kaminski in the idea, but they seem to be pretty well satisfied with specialling. Among the girls who have stayed in nursing, several have gone far ahead of even our envious expectations. Doris Johnson is Supt. of Nurses at the Roosevelt Hospital in New York, and Jane Strickland is Supt. of the Hartford Hospital in Connecticut. Mary DeWolfe is teaching science and Gert Dowling is teaching nursing at the Yale School of Nursing. Mary Wallace is Night Supervisor at M.G.H., and Erma Welker is the new Pediatric Supervisor. We have heard — but this is only rumor, you know — that Liz O’Loughlin is being groomed for a very important position in T.S.O. Madeleine McCromack is teaching nursing at the Quincy Hospital and between times still says no to all susceptible males. Mac’s heart still belongs to Harvard. I had a letter recently from Ruth Murray. You remember she married a Brazilian coffee merchant and is now the mistress of a huge plantation in Brazil. She told me that Gert Hall was down to visit her last fall and is thinking of staying there. She feels that there is a very good field for nurses in South America. Ginny Durning and Peg O’Brien are both specializing in Hollywood and write the most interesting letters about the exciting lives they lead. They’re thinking about writing their memoirs — what a best seller that would make. Page Thirty

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Chronicle of Ye Students and Ye Crusades Now it so happened during ye year nineteen hundred and forty, during the reign of Franklin of ye House of Roosevelt, young maidens desirous of joining ye Order of ye Blacke Bande flocked from far and near to enter these portals. They retired from all earthly pleasures, renouncing worldly pomp — so stirred were they by ye Herald’s alarming tales of war in distant lands — of suffering and squalor amongst the poets and peasants at their very feet. As with one purpose they sheared short their tresses and scraped bare their finger- nails to prepare themselves to win ye privilege of girding on white and wearing ye Blacke Bande. Verily then, were they welcomed by leaders from an older tribe and were taken to view wonders of the General Hospital — the dome built by Charles of the House of Bulflnch, and an inquisition chamber in ye Hall of Walcott. So it came to pass that days passed quickly and full many were ye tasks assigned by leaders who watched ye efforts of young Knightees. Long, were hours spent by ye sages, whispering into ears of ye maidens of ye mysteries of patent drugs and solutions, of bones, and of microbes. And it so happened, there was great weeping and gnashing of teeth, and many were nights spent in ye dungeons deep down in ye earth under ye House of Thayer and in that far-away castle of Walcott. Thus they tried the Knightees; set them jousting in various posts of ye manor with foes which had ridden unfortunate victims inside ye very doors — ye dragons Strep, Staph and ye devastating, invisible Virus the Filterable. Each maiden put forth her utmost to conquer. Sore vexed was she who failed to uphold the ideals of the Order. With great rejoicing did ye apprentices hear ye time had come upon them to help ye oppressed in far flung corners of our mythical kingdom. Lots were drawn and our youthful valiants were assigned to crusades. Great was ye welcome when a minstrel strolled back with news from a crusade — engraved in the hearts of the Defenders of Ye Lamp of Nursing are tales of — Ye crusade to ye Fountain of Youth in Longwood district, where our cham- pions lost not courage, but kept watch and vigil nights through so Powers of Precipitation should not catch them unawares. There, during their days of war against Fever Puerperal did they become skilled in ye art of Pericare. Page T hirty-lwo