A. Louise Dietrich (November 17, 1878 - January 22, 1962) was an American nurse, activist and suffragist who was based in El Paso, Texas. Dietrich came to El Paso in 1902 and stayed to help with the typhoid fever epidemic. In El Paso, she started the first nurses' registry in Texas and also created the El Paso Graduate Nurses Association. She worked at several hospitals both in El Paso and in other cities. Dietrich was one of the organizers and founders of St. Mark's Hospital in El Paso. Dietrich was active with the El Paso Equal Franchise League and later became a president of the Texas League of Women Voters (LWV). Dietrich served as secretary in both the Texas Graduate Nurses Association and the Texas Board of Nursing (BON). After Dietrich's death, she was honored by the Texas House of Representatives for her lifetime of work in nursing and other activism.
Dietrich was born in Ossining, New York, and was one of eleven children. [1] She graduated from St. John's Riverside Hospital in 1899 and went on to work as a private nurse in the state of New York. [1] Dietrich came to El Paso, Texas "on the same train with Buffalo Bill" in 1902. [2] Because of an epidemic of typhoid fever, Dietrich stayed on in El Paso, even though it wasn't her intended destination. [2] She worked at Providence Hospital where she was a director and superintendent. [1] At Providence, she started the first nurses' registry in Texas. [2] Dietrich established the El Paso Graduate Nurses Association in 1903 and served as the first president of the organization. [1] She resigned from Providence early in 1906. [3]
Dietrich went to work at the St. Louis Skin and Cancer Hospital in 1907. [1] She soon came back to El Paso to work at St. Marks Maternity Hospital as the superintendent. [4] She was an attendee of the second Texas Graduate Nurses Association meeting, held in San Antonio in 1908. [5] Dietrich helped to write a bill that required that nurses be registered with the state. [6] The bill was passed in 1909. [6] Also in 1909, Dietrich, nurse Emily Greene, and others organized and began to build a "woman's hospital" called St. Mark's Hospital in El Paso on the corner of Ange and Nevada streets. [7] [8] In the summers, Dietrich and Greene helped work at the Cloudcroft, New Mexico Baby Sanitorium. [8] Dietrich went on to work as the St. Mark's Hospital superintendent until 1916. [1]
Dietrich became involved in the Red Cross in 1912, serving on the Nursing Service Committee. [1] She also provided classes on Red Cross work. [9] During World War I, she stayed active with the Red Cross and also was involved in women's suffrage in El Paso. [1] [10] Dietrich was a member of the El Paso Equal Franchise League. [11] She went on to help women register to vote, helping African American and Mexican women in El Paso register. [12] Later, Dietrich became involved in the Texas League of Women Voters (LWV) and served as president from 1938 to 1940. [2] [13]
In 1923, Dietrich became the first educational secretary of the Texas Board of Nursing (BON). [14] She became a general secretary of the BON and worked full-time for the group. [15] In this capacity, she provided additional training for members of the Texas BON. [16] She also was heavily involved in organizing many projects for the BON. [15]
Dietrich also became a general secretary of the Texas Graduate Nurses Association. [17] In 1954, she retired from the Texas Graduate Nurses Association. [18] The next year she was honored by the El Paso Graduate Nurses Association for her lifetime of work. [19] A fellowship grant was established in her name for graduate nurses to continue their professional education and for inactive nurses to return to the field. [20]
Dietrich died on January 22, 1962, in El Paso. [21] She was buried in Rest Lawn Cemetery in El Paso. [22] In February 1962, the Texas House of Representatives honored her nursing work in Texas. [18] They passed a resolution which said in part that Dietrich did "almost as much to improve and advance the profession of nursing as her revered predecessor, Florence Nightingale." [18]
Irene Ryan was an American actress and comedian who found success in vaudeville, radio, film, television, and Broadway. She is most widely known for her portrayal of Daisy May "Granny" Moses, mother-in-law of Buddy Ebsen's character Jed Clampett on the long-running TV series The Beverly Hillbillies (1962–1971). She was nominated for Emmy Awards for Outstanding Lead Actress in a Comedy Series in 1963 and 1964 for the role.
Olga Bernstein Kohlberg was a Jewish Texan philanthropist and founder of the first public kindergarten in Texas. Kohlberg served as president of the Woman's Club of El Paso for two terms, one from 1899-1900 and the other from 1901-1902. Kohlberg lived in the historic Sunset Heights neighborhood.
Rosanna Osterman was a Civil War nurse, philanthropist and pioneer of Galveston, Texas. Overall, she distributed approximately $75,000 to different charitable causes.
Rosa Ramirez Guerrero is a Mexican American educator, artist and historian from El Paso, Texas. She was the founder of the International Folklorico Dance Group. Guerrero has also been active with work in the Catholic Church, and has been called the "Dancing Missionary" in religious circles. She is also known for her multicultural dance programs which have been performed around the country and featured in a film called Tapestry. She was inducted into the Texas Women's Hall of Fame and has an El Paso school named after her.
Sofie Herzog was an early Texas physician and was the first woman to work as the head surgeon in the American rail industry. She was the first woman in Brazoria to own a car and a telephone and developed her own method of bullet removal.
Kimie Yanagawa Sanematsu (Tokuyama) was an American educator. In 1953 she was the first Japanese person to be naturalized in the United States since 1922, and the first in El Paso, Texas. News from the time period also stated that she was the first Japanese woman to be naturalized in the United States under the McCarran immigration act.
Kate Moore Brown was an American musician, clubwoman and traveler who lived in El Paso, Texas. Brown was one of the first graduates of El Paso High School. She was the first person to teach music in the public schools in Texas and El Paso and was the first woman to own a bicycle in El Paso. Brown is also one of the original creators of the El Paso International Museum which later became the El Paso Museum of Art.
Jan Herring was an American artist. Herring was based in Clint, Texas and showed her work around the United States. Herring began showing her work in 1950 and worked as an instructor at the El Paso Museum of Art. She was inducted into the El Paso Women's Hall of Fame in 1990.
Myra Carroll Winkler was an American educator and was the first woman to hold elected office in El Paso County.
Carrie E. Bullock was an American nurse. She served as the president of the National Association of Colored Graduate Nurses (NACGN) and founded their official newsletter.
Catherine "Kitty" Burnett Kistenmacher was an American artists from El Paso, Texas in the late 20th century and the early 21st century. Kistenmacher was involved in the creation of the International Museum of Art. She is a 2007 inductee into the El Paso Women's Hall of Fame.
Prudence Hathaway Burns Burrell was an African American nurse and author. During World War II, she served in the Army Nurse Corps in segregated hospitals, mainly in the Pacific theater. Her autobiography, Hathaway, was published in 1997. Burrell continued to tell the story of African American nurses in the war throughout her life.
Jane Evelyn Watson Mitchell was an American nurse. Mitchell was the first African-American to work as a nurse in Delaware. Mitchell went on to work as the director of nursing at the Delaware State Psychiatric Hospital. Mitchell was also a civil rights activist and volunteer.
Georgia Marquis Nevins was an American nurse, nursing educator, and hospital administrator.
Belle Christie Ferguson Critchett was an American social activist and suffragist. Critchett was active in Texas, especially in El Paso and was part of the Texas Equal Suffrage Association (TESA). She worked with suffragist Maude E. Craig Sampson to increase opportunities for Black women voters. Later, she became president of the El Paso chapter of the League of Women Voters.
Beulah Ream Allen was an American nurse, physician, and civilian physician during World War II. After graduating with a nursing degree in 1922, she worked as a supervising nurse and headed the educational department for the LDS Hospital in Salt Lake City. She worked as a hospital inspector for the state of Utah until 1928, when she moved to San Francisco to attend medical school. While earning her degree at the University of California, San Francisco, she worked as a nurse in the Bay Area. Upon her graduation in 1932, she moved to the Philippines, where she opened a medical practice.
Alma Vessells John was an American nurse, newsletter writer, radio and television personality, and civil rights activist. Born in Philadelphia in 1906, she moved to New York to take nursing classes after graduating from high school. She completed her nursing training at Harlem Hospital School of Nursing in 1929 and worked for two years as a nurse before being promoted to the director of the educational and recreational programs at Harlem Hospital. After being fired for trying to unionize nurses in 1938, she became the director of the Upper Manhattan YWCA School for Practical Nurses, the first African American to serve as director of a school of nursing in the state of New York.. In 1944, John became a lecturer and consultant with the National Nursing Council for War Service, serving until the war ended, and was the last director of the National Association of Colored Graduate Nurses from 1946 until it dissolved in 1951. Her position at both organizations was to expand nursing opportunities for black women and integrate black nurses throughout the nation into the health care system.
Alzina Caroline Allis Orndorff DeGroff was an American businesswoman who was involved in civic causes in El Paso, Texas, and West Texas.
Myrtis May Coltharp was an American nurse, foreign service officer, and federal official. In 1946, she became the first foreign service nurse employed by the United States Department of State, and she worked as a staff nurse at American embassies in Europe, Africa, and Latin America. From 1962 to 1963, she was the second Director of Foreign Service Nurses at the State Department.