Oral History Program Sandra Stauffer Interviewed by Marci Farr 30 October 2008 Oral History Program Weber State University Stewart Library Ogden, Utah Sandra Stauffer Interviewed by Marci Farr 30 October 2008 Copyright © 2010 by Weber State University, Stewart Library Mission Statement The Oral History Program of the Stewart Library was created to preserve the institutional history of Weber State University and the Davis, Ogden and Weber County communities. By conducting carefully researched, recorded, and transcribed interviews, the Oral History Program creates archival oral histories intended for the widest possible use. Interviews are conducted with the goal of eliciting from each participant a full and accurate account of events. The interviews are transcribed, edited for accuracy and clarity, and reviewed by the interviewees (as available), who are encouraged to augment or correct their spoken words. The reviewed and corrected transcripts are indexed, printed, and bound with photographs and illustrative materials as available. Archival copies are placed in Special Collections. The Stewart Library also houses the original recording so researchers can gain a sense of the interviewee's voice and intonations. Project Description The Dee School of Nursing was founded in 1910 to provide training for nurses who would staff the new Dee Memorial Hospital. The first class of eight nurses graduated from the school in 1913 and the school continued to operate until 1955, with a total of more than 700 graduates. A new nursing school and home located just east of the hospital was completed in 1917 and all nursing students were required to live in the home during their training. This oral history project was created to capture the memories of the school's alumni before their stories disappear in the same way the Dee Hospital has disappeared. The oral interviews focus on how the women became involved with the school, their experiences going through training, and how they used the training. ____________________________________ Oral history is a method of collecting historical information through recorded interviews between a narrator with firsthand knowledge of historically significant events and a well-informed interviewer, with the goal of preserving substantive additions to the historical record. Because it is primary material, oral history is not intended to present the final, verified, or complete narrative of events. It is a spoken account. It reflects personal opinion offered by the interviewee in response to questioning, and as such it is partisan, deeply involved, and irreplaceable. ____________________________________ Rights Management Special Collections All literary rights in the manuscript, including the right to publish, are reserved to the Stewart Library of Weber State University. No part of the manuscript may be published without the written permission of the University Librarian. Requests for permission to publish should be addressed to the Administration Office, Stewart Library, Weber State University, Ogden, Utah, 84408. The request should include identification of the specific item and identification of the user. It is recommended that this oral history be cited as follows: Sandra Stauffer, an oral history by Marci Farr, 30 October 2008, WSU Stewart Library Oral History Program, Special Collections, Stewart Library, Weber State University, Ogden, UT. iii Maxine Jackson Owens Mother of Sandra Stauffer Application Photo 1941 Graduation Photo Class of 1953 Maxine Jackson Owens October 21, 2008 Abstract: This is an oral history interview with Sandra Stauffer. It was conducted October 30, 2008 and concerns her recollections of her mother, Maxine Jackson Owens, and the Dee School of Nursing. The interviewer is Marci Farr. MF: This is Marci Farr and we are interviewing Sandra Stauffer and her mom was Maxine Jackson Owens. She graduated from the Dee School of Nursing in 1943. It is October 30, 2008. We are just going to ask you a little bit about where your mom grew up, her early life, her family and where she went to school. SS: Okay MF: Go ahead and tell us a little bit about your mother. SS: My mother was raised in Sutherland, Utah. Her parents were George and Rhoda Jackson. They lived on a farm and had a family of nine, my mom being number five. She used to enjoy telling us the story of her brother, Lloyd, who would tease mom by locking her in the chicken coop and tell her he would let her out when she laid an egg. Later, this same brother joined the service and would send mom $25.00 each month to help her through her nursing school. Most of us heard about our parents walking five miles one way through the snow just to get to school, and another about heating up a large rock in the fireplace, then wrapping it in a blanket to keep them warm when grandpa would take them himself in their horse drawn wagon. My mother wanted to be a home economics teacher. She was a great seamstress and would sew for my sister and myself as well as her own dresses. She sewed for my grandmother’s and a great aunt Martha, making their house dresses and robes, and also spent a lot of time mending for the family. Her 1 cooking was the best, and I remember so many very good meals. She would have made a good teacher, but decided to go into nursing instead because of WWII. Mom was always an asset to the community. For a few years she worked for Millard County as the County Health Nurse. I remember traveling around with her to homes in neighboring towns, and also knew she would be visiting our school, giving vaccinations to a line-up of grade school children. Her friendship with the two local Doctors in the Delta area was based on respect and trust and my mother acted more like the Nurse Practitioners of our day, helping them with their workloads. She liked the attention however, and spent a lot of time talking to Doc. Lyman, in consults and talking about symptoms and signs. As a young girl, if I got sick, she would give me penicillin shots almost at a whim it seemed. If we had a sore throat or an ear ache, she had the medication needed. That is how it was for the neighbors and relatives close by as well, whether they were chronic or just not feeling well, she would treat them if she could. There were two instances I remember vividly from my childhood about my mother as a nurse. One was the care she gave to Marie Moody who was dying of cancer. Mom made many trips to her home, when her husband would call, to give Marie a bed bath or medication for pain. I was maybe three or four at the time, and Marv, Marie’s husband would fill my apron pockets with peanuts so I could snack while I was waiting for mom at their home. 2 The second was when a four year old boy was hit by a car while walking by the roadside with his brother. I was very young and with mom at the Sutherland store, about a mile from our home, when the accident took place. Someone else took me home after she rushed out of the store to go to the scene and help. It was a very sad time for the family, and town because the little boy died. MF: They were trained so well at the Dee School. You could get a job anywhere. You had the best nursing training ever. They did everything. It was during the war too. How did that affect your mom as far as being in nursing during the war? SS: Mom was proud of her training at the Dee School of Nursing, it led her to serving our country during WWII. She was stationed on Mare Island, as well as Guam. She worked on a ship that transported wounded soldiers to hospitals for re-hab, and home. She did talk about her experiences with the many wounded soldiers and told us how difficult it was for her to see the damages the war had made to their bodies. In a letter she wrote to a family friend (that she never mailed), she explained the changes the war had made on her personally because of those experiences. MF: That would be very hard to have to witness. You would never have seen anything like that before. SS: No. MF: To all of a sudden see the destruction of war…that would be very hard. 3 SS: Yes, it was. She talked very little about their specific wounds, but in general of how much empathy the soldiers needed, and the care that she tried to give them. Of course, she must as seemed like an angel to a lot of them. MF: I am sure. Just from her being able to help others…that is the whole idea of nursing, being able to use your training to help those in your community to better those around you. That is always such a great thing. Did she keep in contact with any of her classmates? Did she ever talk about any of them? SS: I remember her mentioning a few names but don’t recall her ever going to a reunion or getting together with them. She and my dad were so busy I don’t think she had much time. MF: I am sure everything you have to do when you are a famer’s wife…this is your job. SS: Yes it was for her. She was very busy. MF: What did she do after she graduated from the school? SS: After her schooling I believe she went right into the service. She joined the Navy as a “Wave.” She was a Navy Wave. MF: When she went to the service, was she there for the remainder of the war? SS: Yes she was. MF: What did she do after she got out of the service? SS: After the war she returned to her parent’s farm in Sutherland. It was only five miles from Delta where my dad’s family lived. Somehow they met, and married. They bought a farm in Sutherland and stayed there for about 40 years. My sister was still in high school when they moved into Delta. 4 MF: Did she know him while she was in training or from before? SS: He served in Holland and France during his tour and was a communications runner as well as a sharp shooter in the Army. I am sure they didn’t meet then. Dad was a few years older and I believe she met him after the war, when they had both been discharged from the service. MF: Okay, good. Did she ever say as far as how nursing had changed from when she had gone through training and when she got older? SS: Mom experienced history first hand, with advances in medicine that I am sure she thought were amazing. She used stainless steel cases that held glass syringes. I remember her giving injections with needles that my dad would sharpen with a whet stone. They would boil them on the stove top to sterilize in between each use. That all changed with the disposable plastic syringe and needles. She experienced the Delta hospital first being in the basement of Doctor Byrd’s home. Then a few years later, she was one of the first nurses to work at the new West Millard Hospital in Delta. I believe it was built in the 1960’s. I remember her upholstering cushions for the benches and chairs for the new waiting room, doing whatever she could to help and contribute. She even let me help hem squares of fabric to use in the autoclave. MF: She was a woman of many talents, Huh? SS: Oh, she did everything…hard shoes to fill. MF: Oh I am sure. That is great. So how many siblings did you say you have? 5 SS: I have two brothers and a sister: Lenny, who lives in Logan, Ed, who lives on the family farm, and a sister, Marjorie who lives in Sparks, Nevada. MF: That is good to know. Did anyone follow in your mom’s footsteps? SS: My sister, Marjorie, is an RN. She has kept her license current but I don’t believe she is working as a nurse right now. MF: One lady said her step-mom was a nurse and then she and her sister both became nurses because of that. So, we always ask if there was anybody else because of her example. That is great. If you have anything else that you wanted to share with us you can go ahead. SS: Well, as a night nurse in Delta, mom was usually involved in emergencies and would be very busy, or the nights were quiet and long. She would often come home and tell us of a baby being born, and of how she had been able to help with the delivery, or of the sheriff bringing in the town drunk for a bath and a meal. She enjoyed visiting with patients, and their families, and doing whatever she could for them. I know mom loved her schooling and her career as a nurse. It’s a little ironic maybe that she went to school at the Dee School of Nursing, and then passed away at McKay Dee Hospital nearly 50 years later. MF: Thank you for letting us come and talk about your mom’s experiences. 6