Oral Histories: Past Presidents of the Arkansas State Nurses Association

This collection contains information not only of the past presidents of the Arkansas State Nurses Association, but also on the history of nursing in general.

 

Interviewee: Barbara Belzner

Interviewer: Dr. Waddy W. Moore

Date of Interview: March 20, 1974

Miss Belzner was born on February 18, 1902. The interview includes her family history, her life in Camden and Pine Bluff, Arkansas, and her history as a nurse.

 

Interviewee: Marqerite Burt

Interviewer: Dr. Waddy W. Moore

Date of Interview: May 15, 1974

Graduated 1939 from Baptist in Memphis, TN. She received a scholarship to Western Reserve to get her baccalaureate in 1949. Past Presidents of the Arkansas State Nurses Association. Student life on practicing nursing and their reactions and demands

 

Interviewee: Marjorie Falconer

Interviewer: Dr. Waddy Moore

Date of Interview: March 8, 1974

Marjorie Falconer practiced nursing in the early to mid-1900s. She was accepted into the Army in 1917 as a part of the Red Cross program. Afterwards, she taught first aid and home nursing in Faulkner County and then moved on to become a school nurse in Little Rock. In 1953 Falconer received both her master’s degree and her counseling certification.

 

Interviewee: Dorothea Funk

Interviewer: Dr. Waddy Moore

Date of Interview: Jan. 23 & 25, 1974; Feb. 13, 1974

Dorothea Funk practiced nursing in the 1900s. She worked with both the American Red Cross and the Salvation Army. In the late 1940s she went into the Army Nurse Corps. From there she worked with the Arkansas State Board of Health as a nurse investigator until 1948. In 1967, Funk joined the Arkansas State Nurses Association Staff where she later became president.

 

Interviewee: Eupha Sue Knox

Interviewer: Dr. Waddy Moore

Date of Interview: March 11, 1974

Eupha Knox entered St. Mary’s School of Nursing in Russellville, Arkansas in 1923 after devoting a year to the Red Cross. After graduating in 1927, she became a county nurse for Pope County. In 1933, Knox took the position of state director of public health nursing for three years. She later took several short-term nursing jobs such as staff nurse for Ford, Bacon and Davis Co., and an industrial plant in Jacksonville, Arkansas. In 1960 Knox began her employment with Baptist Memorial, which she continued until she retired in 1969.

 

Interviewee: Christine Needham

Interviewer: Dr. Waddy Moore

Date of Interview: Feb. 27, 1974

Christine Needham practiced nursing in the mid-1900s. From 1930 to 1937, she worked as the nurse supervisor at Davis Hospital in Pine Bluff. She later worked a variety of nursing jobs such as instructor and coordinator at the Pine Bluff Practical Nurse School and Director of Nursing Services for the Cleveland County Nursing Home. She was elected into the State Nurses Association Hall of Fame.

 

Interviewee: Ann Presley

Interviewer: Dr. Waddy Moore

Date of Interview: March 10, 1974

Ann Presley graduated from St. Edwards in 1934, and then worked as a private nurse. She was the Community Health Coordinator at St. Edward’s School of Nursing from 1950 to 1957 and later worked for the Arkansas State Board of Health. After her last child was born in 1957, Presley retired from active work until the deaths of her husband, her mother and her father, when she returned to nursing in Oklahoma. Presley graduated with her Master of Science in Community Health Nursing in 1973, and at the time of the interview, she reported that she was working towards a certification to be a facilitator in Gestalt Therapy.