Record Accession Number: 1337
First UVA program	NURS	Second UVA program
Comments on UVA programs
Home town	Bremington	Home state	WA
Comments on Home town and state	I'd spent all three years in high school there only because my father, a career Navy officer, had called in many favors with people in the Navy's Bureau of Personnel to keep us in town till my graduation. Three days later, we were on the road to the East Coast to take a ship to Puerto Rico. What to do about college? Naturally, with all my high school buddies going to school in Washington, my first choice was U.W., but the parents both said, "No." It was too far, and the airfare back and for the would be prohibitive -- Dad was tight with a buck. My other problem was I wanted to be a nurse and go to college. Since my folks are both gone now, I don't have the option of asking them, but my gut feeling is they couldn't quite believe that their scatterbrained, coltish daughter could settle down and apply herself to the science-oriented curriculum. Dad couldn't understand why I didn't want to go to a diploma program. But I knew I wanted college. That wasn't that easy in those days. There were about 20 baccalaureate programs around and most of them took five years to complete. U.Va.'s took four and a quarter years at that time - and we only had six weeks off each summer. Yes, we received our degrees in June, but we didn't graduate till September. So the bottom line is my selection of U.Va. was the location was good. My parents had many friends assigned to the D.C. and Quantico area in case any emergency developed. the cost per semester wasn't bad, and the course itself was the shortest of all those we looked at. So Mother, Dad, and my sister were all in San Juan, P.R., and I was starting college at Mary Washington.
Home town classification
Comments on Home town classification
High school classification	Public
Comments on High school classification
Was your high school co-ed?	Yes
Comments on Co-ed high school
Did you come directly from high school to UVA?	No
Comments if not directly from high school	Mary Washington, 2 years
Important activities before coming to UVA
Comments on important activities	The most important activities in my life in high school revolved around either school or the naval base where we lived. I had two sets of friends, the ones who were dependent of military and my civilian crowd. Choir and choir trips were my first love. Anything to do with reading and learning, but I was a typical teenage air head with my head in the clouds thinking about boys.
If married, was it before, during, or after UVA?	After
Comments on time of marriage
Was your spouse associated with UVA?	No
Comments on spouses association with UVA	I didn't marry until 1964. I'd saved my money, sailed to Europe and hitched around Germany, Austria and Italy living in hostels and supporting myself by picking grapes. found out the US Army would hire civilian nurses. I hired on, met my husband, an Army Captain, and stayed two and a half years.
Mother's first degree		Mother's first college	Boston Conservatory, piano
Mother's second college	Normal School	Mother's second degree	Teaching certificate
Mother's third college		Mother's third degree
Father's first degree		Father's first college
Father's second college		Father's second degree
Father's third school		Father's third degree
Comments on parents' schooling
First sister's level of schooling		Second sister's level of schooling
Third sister's level of schooling		First brother's level of schooling
Second brother's level of schooling		Third brother's level of schooling
Comments on siblings' schooling
Family members at UVA
Comments on family members at UVA
Mother's first occupation		Mother's second occupation
Mother's third occupation		Father's first occupation
Father's second occupation		Father's third occupation
Comments on parents' occupations
Date entered UVA		Date left UVA
First other college		First other concentration
First other degree		First other dates of attendance
Second other college		Second other concentration
Second other degree		Second other dates of attendance
Third other college		Third other concentration
Third other degree		Third other dates of attendance
Fourth other college		Fourth other concentration
Fourth other degree		Fourth other dates of attendance
Fifth other college		Fifth other concentration
Fifth other degree		Fifth other dates of attendance
Comments on college experiences
Why did you choose UVA?
Comments on choice to attend UVA	See #2.
How did you finance UVA?
Comments on financing	Dad paid for my education. The original plan was for me to then pay for my sister's education, but she eloped as she graduated from high school.
Why did you choose your UVA concentration(s)?
Comments on choice of concentration	If you remember the fifties, there were only about two courses of study for women. Teachers and nurses. I knew I didn't have the patience for teaching children, but I'd always been good at working with sick people. I worked with battle casuaties in the Navy hospital when I was in high school.
Description of UVA classroom experiences
Comments on classroom experiences	Probably the mixed bag everyone has. Most of the nursing instructors were not that exciting. We had one outstanding med/surg instructor who was always one step ahead of everybody else including the doctors, which I loved then and really love now. They never got the better of her, and I think they were just a tad afraid of her.
Description of UVA professor interactions
Comments on professor interactions	You must remember that our nursing instructors were also our clinical instructors. Some of those women had some serious emotional problems. Our pediatric nursing instructor was so histrionic that my classmates and I used to bet what day they'd have to drag her off wrapped in a wet sheet. Our pharmacy teacher knew her stuff, but was such a poor speaker, we used to pass the hour counting the number of times she said "Ah-wha," in between words. I'm extremely fortunate to have completed a 35 year career without making a major life-ending drug error.
Who impacted your life at UVA?
Comments on life impact	My patients. My first major abdominal case was a man named Jesus Christ Yoder. He was a good Amish fellow with a major bowel obstructor, who suffered complications post-op. Even in terrible pain, he was a good man, who put up with everything we did to him with dignity and patience. A couple of the doctors were above and beyond what I expected them to be. A couple were far below. I once saw a surgical intern trying to decide whether or not to take a patient with possible appendicitis by using a ouija board. Some law students. They were the most fun to date. They had a better knowledge of the world at large. I learned a great deal from them.
Most memorable UVA educational experience
Comments on memorable educational experience	The more I learned about nursing, the more I liked it. I loved helping people through difficult time, helping them sort things out, and based on their life style, helping them heal and deal with whatever medical problem they had. I didn't mind nursing school. I remember my classmates feeling cramped and wanting to get it over our senior year. I never felt that way. I enjoyed my friends and classmates. Can't say I was a particular favorite of any of the instructors, but the evening and night supervisors did like me because I thought on my feet and was a natural born trouble shooter. This helped me when I joined the Air Force, too.
UVA weekend activities
Comments on weekend activities	Weekends: We worked for the hospital four weekend days a month. Usually we'd have a date on the weekend. Football, Polo, tubing down the Rivanan River. Always in groups. Our curfew was 2300 hours on weekends and 2200 during the week. We had cards in a file cabinet where we signed in and out.
UVA extra-curricular organizations
Comments on extra-curricular organizations	Not when you're a nursing student. The Greek types all came around wanting us to pledge one of the three. I think only one of our 25 women did. What for? There were no sorority houses for us to live in, and it wasn't cheap.
Important local, state, national, and international issues while at UVA
Comments on important issues	If it looked like the U.S. would have to deploy troops, I always became glued to the TV, fearful that my dad would have to go. Segregation bothered me a lot. Black women had their own ward as did black men. The open wards were a far cry from the private wing. I was there in '62 when on the shoulders of an intern buddy of mine we personally were able to pull down all the white and colored signs over the bathrooms.
How interest in issues was expressed
Comments on how interest was expressed	But did I protest or march? No. I know you've read about the fifties mentality, but maybe you had to be there.
UVA housing
Comments on housing	dorm - I lived in McKim Hall.
Likes and dislikes about housing
Comments on likes and dislikes	I had the same roommate the whole time. We got on well together.
Where were meals eaten
Comments on meal location	We ate free in the hospital cafeteria. That consisted of a lot of chicken and ham which we swore some nursing student had used to pay her tuition.
Did you interact outside of UVA?
Interaction detail	I attended the Holy Comforter Catholic Church. Several times we'd be invited to homes for meals. We didn't accept them that often because sometimes we were so tired we just wanted to sleep.
Memories of Charlottesville
Comments on Charlottesville memories	White people seemed to dislike and disregard blacks as a race, but respond well to individuals they'd known for years. I remember all the men, clean shave and wearing coats and ties. No long hair. The man who broke out the first seersucker jacket in the spring had to buy his fraternity house a keg of beer. A great deal of the things about social life revolved around drinking. I've always hated the smell of second hand beer. I think it began at that time. Of course working in the ER on the Big Weekends could drive the staff to drink. Drunk Wahoos are not or have they ever been fun.
Did you feel part of UVA community?		Did you feel part of community?
Incidents that caused these community feelings
Vivid UVA memories
Comments on vivid memories	Two experiences stand out in my mind from those last two years of college. First, one of my classmates was married to a doctor and was pregnant. It was time for the class picture, and the nursing school wouldn't let her be in our picture because she was in her third trimester and showed. The second incident took place either right after we went to U.Va. for our first summer (1956) or right after we arrived for our last two years of study (fall of '57). We were assembled for our regular med/surg class, but instead the Chief of Obstetrics, Dr. Nokes, appeared and started giving us a sex lecture. I can't remember what he said, but I do remember it wasn't done well. The gist of his talk seemed to be since we as women would be the one who'd get pregnant, it was up to each of us to set the tone for our dating life. You will remember that in that pre-DNA, pre-birth control pill, and pre-legal abortion era, women had few options. Also, this was the period when college guys, if accused, would get together and swear the girl in question had been intimate with all of them. Charming guys, huh? Again, did I get up and protest? No. But each time I've thought of that class over the years, I've gotten more and more angry. How dare our instructors and the dean of the nursing school allow us to be treated like second class citizens?
Did marital status affect UVA experiences
Comments on influence of marital status	Of course it did. We did have social lives when we weren't working. I dated a number of people, but as I said, I enjoyed the law students the best. They were older. Many of the guys our age were so immature and self absorbed.
Did cultural background affect UVA experiences
Comments on influence of cultural background	no
Did UVA prepare you for post-UVA life?
Comments on preparedness	For the most part. The nursing program was typical of nursing education at the time. We were taught to be "hand maidens," rather than independent practicioner. We had to stand up and give up our seats if we were charting anytime a doctor came into the area. Thank God those days are gone forever.
Most significant post-UVA events
Comments on most significant event	Going to Europe led to both my first professional experience in a military hospital and to my marriage. My husband's death two years later left me with decisions about what to do with the rest of my life. I wanted something that would be both meaningful and give me a good pension at the end of 20 or 30 years. So I joined the Air Force. They sent me back for my masters at government expense. I've worked in Thailand, the Philippines and Germany. I know that the American way and culture are not the only ways to look at problems. I've seen different life styles. Americans do have their shortcomings. We tried to avoid tours with just Americans when we were in Europe because there are a plethora of ugly Americans who don't speak other languages and expect to be treated better than others simply because they are Americans.
Personal factors that affected professional life
Comments on personal factors
Other factors affecting life after the university
Comments on other factors	My own personality. I've always been competitve and ambitious. And I'm no genius, but my IQ is above average. Perfect for competing to win rank in the nurse corps.
First post-UVA job		First job dates
Second post-UVA job		Second job dates
Third post-UVA job		Third job dates
Comments on post-UVA jobs	Command Nurse, Space Command - 1991-1993.
First post-UVA volunteer position		First volunteer dates
Second post-UVA volunteer position		Second volunteer dates
Third post-UVA volunteer position		Third volunteer dates
Comments on volunteering
Do you think of yourself as a career woman?
Comments on career woman question
Barriers faced in work and volunteering
Comments on barriers question	Just good ole boy syndrome from time to time, but it's never kept me down for long.
Current marital status
Comments on current marital status
Current age range
Comments on current age range
Number of children
Comments on number of children
Current employment status
Comments on employment status	Although I'm retired from the USAF, I run my own counseling business using Myers-Briggs personality typing, and write fiction. And, in the four years since I've hung up my blue suit, I've completed three novels.
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