Published by the Historical Society of Palm Beach County
Vol. 12 No. 1 SPRING 2021
Anna Finn Pressly: An Oral History A Life Revealed: The Herpel Collection Page 10
Pioneer Nursing in Palm Beach County Page 32
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From the Editor Dear Reader, One of the most rewarding things about archival work is remembering the past with a photograph, letter, anecdote, or oral history. There is always excitement when a new discovery or a lost artifact opens up the past and brings forth lost voices. In this issue, volunteer archivist Jim Ferguson navigates through the meticulously collected life of Dr. Frederick Karl Herpel, a US Army doctor on the cutting edge of medical technology. Jim reveals the thrill of exploring a new collection and the satisfaction of preserving Herpel's archives for future generations.
Tustenegee is a journal about Palm Beach County and Florida history and is published online twice a year by the Historical Society of Palm Beach County.
Recently we discovered in our archives a transcription of an interview with pioneer midwife Millie Gildersleeve. This lost interview offers a peek into the life of one of the first African American women to live on Lake Worth, as well as the health care available to our early residents.
The Historical Society of Palm Beach County is a nonprofit organization whose mission is to collect, preserve, and share the rich history and cultural heritage of Palm Beach County.
Looking ahead to the 80th anniversary of Pearl Harbor and the US entering World War II, this issue features an oral history with Anna Finn Pressly, who joined the US Army Nurses Corps in 1945 and was shipped to the Pacific island of Tinian.
Historical Society of Palm Beach County Phone: (561) 832-4164 www.pbchistory.org & www.pbchistoryonline.org
As always, we welcome article submissions that share Florida in historic ways.
Mailing Address: Historical Society of Palm Beach County PO Box 4364 West Palm Beach, FL 33402-4364 The contents of Tustenegee are copyrighted by the Historical Society of Palm Beach County. All rights are reserved. Reprint of material is encouraged; however, written permission from the Historical Society is required. The Historical Society disclaims any responsibility for errors in factual material or statements of opinion expressed by contributors. The contents and opinions do not necessarily reflect the views and opinions of the editors, board, or staff of the Historical Society of Palm Beach County.
On the cover: Anna Finn Pressly. Courtesy Pressly Collection, HSPBC.
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Sincerely,
Rose Guerrero
4
Table of Contents
32
10 42
36 Become a Part of History 4
A Life Revealed: The Herpel Collection
36
Become a Member
10
Anna Finn Pressly: an Oral History
40
Corporate Membership
32
Pioneer Nursing in Palm Beach County
42
New to the Archives
by Jim Ferguson
From the Historical Society of Palm Beach County
Editor-in-Chief: Debi Murray Editor: Rose E. Guerrero Copy Editor: Lise M. Steinhauer Graphics and Layout: Rose E. Guerrero Printing: Kustom Print Design
Have an abstract or an idea for an article? Send us your ideas: rguerrero@pbchistory.org
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A Life Revealed: The Herpel Collection The story of a distinguished medical career emerges. By Jim Ferguson
A multi-generational collection of material, from bound telegrams to third-grade class photos. Courtesy HSPBC.
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T
here is a tinge of mystery mixed with excitement whenever a volunteer archivist opens a box containing new materials for the Society’s collection. That happens in the Reading Room, where the work of cataloguing new donations is done. The archivist wonders what is inside the box: photographs? A diary, map, or manuscript? Or more tangible items like medals, a camera, a piece of jewelry? Who collected these items, and why did they preserve them so preciously? That is what I was wondering in September 2020 when I accepted the task of cataloging the Herpel Collection.
With the urgency of wartime, the army initially assigned the 24-year-old to be trained as an orthopedic surgeon and sent him to Harvard Medical School for a short training course. His first posting was to Camp Lee in Virginia, where, he reported, he was “one of a group of about seven recently commissioned officers, presumably with some connection with orthopedics. We were to be disabused as the Surgeon, a Colonel Rhodes of the old school, stated that he had not asked for us, did not know what we were supposed to do, and generally implied that we had better keep out of his way.”
The box revealed its surprises as I began to explore. It was a multi-generational collection spanning more than a century, containing items ranging from a bound volume of telegrams and military orders from World War I, to two decades of carefully labelled third-grade class photos from Central and South Olive Elementary schools in West Palm Beach.
Shortly thereafter, and not yet having practiced orthopedic surgery, Dr. Herpel was appointed post surgeon for Fort Jay, just across from the Statue of
What fascinated me most in this collection were the documents that had belonged to family member Dr. Frederick K. Herpel, who served in the US Army Medical Corps in both world wars and became the leading radiologist in West Palm Beach for four decades. He was a man who took meticulous notes on his experiences, recording names and comments about seemingly every doctor he ever worked with, and going so far as to compose several versions of his autobiography. It was a fascinating career path. Radiology was in its infancy when Dr. Herpel, only a year out of Johns Hopkins Medical School, was drafted into the US Army in 1917. His field of study was not even called radiology then, but roentgenology, after German physics professor Wilhelm Roentgen, who had discovered the x-ray only two decades earlier. It was quite by happenstance that Dr. Herpel embarked on a distinguished career as a radiologist as a second lieutenant in the army when the United States entered World War I.
Dr. Frederick K. Herpel in 1953. Courtesy Herpel Collection, HSPBC. Liberty in New York Harbor. From his window, he watched the regular sailing of troop transports heading to Europe. Upon assuming his post, the young doctor was taken aback by the broad range of responsibilities that were placed on his shoulders:
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L - Dr & Mrs Jos. L. Veiniar, H1 - Dr. & Mrs. Hirsett (Miami), H2 - Dr. & Mrs. F. Herpel at the Florida Medical Association Meeting in Hollywood, Florida. Courtesy Herpel Collection, HSPBC. serving on boards of inquiry and boards of promotion, as a medical witness, as both a member and examiner on retiring boards, and even on courts martial. Within just a few months, Dr. Herpel confronted a more daunting challenge. The deadly Spanish flu pandemic struck, and he was tasked with supervising the treatment of up to 600 patients at a time in a hospital having only 160 beds, with only two other doctors to assist. They improvised as best they could, housing patients in converted outbuildings and outdoor tents. As he recalled in later years, “there was no accepted treatment for this relatively new
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disease. No female nurses were available. Isolation was carried out so far as possible. Sheets were hung between beds. Masks were worn by all attending personnel.” He went on to report that “[f]orty persons with pneumonia died of their disease out of 120,” resulting in a 33% death rate at his facility. Within just a year, Dr. Herpel was quite surprised to receive orders to report to the Army School of Roentgenology in Washington for intensive training in the new field of medicine; he had neither applied for this nor expressed any interest in it. We can surmise that he was highly regarded as both a physician and administrator, since he was soon appointed chief of
A list of frequently diagnosed medical conditions, from one of the detailed scrapbooks Dr. Herpel collected from his years as a medical professional in the Army. Courtesy Herpel Collection, HSPBC.
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radiology at the Walter Reed U.S. Army General Hospital. At that time, radiology was seen essentially as an adjunct to surgery, but Dr. Herpel was eager to explore
other potential applications. As chance would have it, he assumed his new position at Walter Reed just as the second wave of influenza hit. Seizing opportunity amid the crisis and employing his new professional x-ray equipment and skills, he set out not only to diagnose patients but to investigate the progressive effects of the disease on the lungs. He ordered daily chest roentgenograms (x-rays) of every patient over the course of two months of treatment. This was more challenging for his staff than might be imagined today as every image had to be made on glass plates; x-ray film was not yet in common use. The dangers of exposure to radiation were underappreciated at that time. Dr. Herpel noted that a technician carried out an average of over 1,500 high-dosage x-rays per month. As for doctors like himself, he later recalled that “there was much exposure to secondary radiation incident to fluoroscopic examinations, often numbering fifty or more each day.” With respect to his own health, he noted with relief and a touch of surprise, “Despite this considerable exposure to secondary radiation, continued to my final retirement in 1964, there was never any alteration in blood count.” Nevertheless, he suffered numerous skin lesions later in life. In 1922 Dr. Herpel retired from the army as a major and, after several years in the Pacific Northwest, he moved with his wife and child to West Palm Beach to take the position of radiologist at Good Samaritan, then a small hospital which had only been organized in 1919. He recalled, “I was chief cook and bottle washer, performed the multiple functions of technician, orderly, secretary, stenographer, general flunky, deliverer of reports,
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Dr. Frederick Karl Herpel in uniform. Courtesy Herpel Collection, HSPBC.
maintainer of all records of the department for the first three years, at which time my first technician was trained and employed.” He later opened a private practice at the Harvey Building on Datura Street in downtown West Palm Beach. With the outbreak of World War II, Dr. Herpel was recalled to active military service and was made chief medical officer at Fort Bragg, North Carolina. In that capacity he oversaw the challenge of screening 400 inductees a day, requiring him and his staff to “work continuously, dawn to dusk, without a break,” which he noted with pride that they did “without any evident loss of efficiency.” He recalled being taken aback by the high percentage of young men he had to reject as medically unfit. He retired from the army in 1945 with the rank of lieutenant colonel.
took on new challenges. He was chief of staff at Good Samaritan Hospital, radiologist-in-chief at both St. Mary’s Hospital in West Palm Beach and Bethesda Memorial Hospital in Boynton Beach, and a radiology consultant at hospitals in Stuart, Fort Pierce, and Vero Beach. In 1964 he and his wife retired to California, where he worked on his memoirs with determined devotion. This included researching and writing a mini-biography on the career of every one of his classmates from the Johns Hopkins Medical School Class of 1916.
To me, being a volunteer archivist has dual rewards: not only discovering fascinating sides to people’s lives and the county’s history, but also the satisfaction of knowing that you are creating the detailed catalog entries and files that ensure that these histories, Returning to civilian life in West Palm Beach, Dr. documents, and artifacts will remain accessible for Herpel resumed his pre-war professional roles and future generations.
Jim is a retired high school teacher and middle school principal. He and his wife, Laura, lived in Paris from 1984 to 2017 and taught at the American School of Paris. Prior to that, they taught in London and New York City. He has always had a broad interest in the social sciences and serves as curator for the Juno Beach Historical Society, which he was instrumental in founding in 2018. His hobbies include cooking and creating bonsais. He has been a volunteer archivist at the HSPBC since 2017.
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Anna Finn Pressly (1923-) An Oral History
From the Historical Society of Palm Beach County Edited for publication by Lise M. Steinhauer
Anna Finn Pressly on Miyajima Island, Japan in the 1945. Courtesy Pressly Collection, HSPBC.
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A
Introduction nna Finn Pressly was born in a comfortable Manhattan brownstone, the third of eight children
of banker James A. Finn Jr. and artist Kathleen Macy. The growing family moved to Westchester County, where Anna attended a Catholic boarding school. After graduation from St. Vincent’s Hospital School of Nursing on Staten Island, she joined the US Army Nurses Corps in 1945 and was shipped to the Pacific island of Tinian, where a hospital had just been built—and the Enola Gay awaited its role in ending World War II. Soon after returning to the States, Anna met and married James Grier Pressly of Due West, South Carolina. With a master’s degree from Columbia University, “Jim” spent a long career as a tennis instructor, while the family lived seasonally in Palm Beach and in Southport, Connecticut.
THE INTERVIEW
October 08, 2015 Interviewers: Lise Steinhauer and Debi Murray
Steinhauer: This is Lise Steinhauer for the Historical Society of Palm Beach County at the City Hall in West Palm Beach, Florida. We’re talking to Anna Finn Pressly today. Also present is Chief Curator Debi Murray from the Society. Anna, good morning. Pressly: Good morning. Steinhauer: Would you please say your full name and spell it for me? Pressly: A-n-n-a F-i-n-n P-r-e-s-s-l-y, Anna Finn Pressly. Steinhauer: Where and when were you born? Pressly: I was born in New York City in 1923, at home. A horrible birthday, December 22nd [laughter]
Steinhauer: Where was he born? Pressly: Boston [in 1883]. He was a banker. Emigrant Savings Bank down near Wall Street [on Chambers Street]. Steinhauer: He had a long way to go to work. Pressly: Yeah, well, you got on the subway, I guess. That was the least of my worries. Steinhauer: What kind of man was your father? Pressly: He was a very strict Bostonian. He scared us all to death. Steinhauer: What was your mother’s name?
Pressly: We lived at 50 East 92nd Street, a brownstone house. That was the suburbs, I guess, of New York City, between Madison and Park [avenues].
Pressly: Kathleen Macy. She was born in New York City [in 1896]. Her family were one of the Quakers that settled Nantucket [Massachusetts]. There were eight of them that went over to Nantucket to settle because the Quakers were run out of the Boston area.
Steinhauer: What was your father’s name? Pressly: James Anthony Finn.
Steinhauer: Does the name Macy have any connection to the store?
Steinhauer: Where in New York City did you live?
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Pressly: Yes, R. H. Macy is a cousin of my mother.
managed to stay close. That’s not easy to do.
Murray: Were your ancestors whalers or merchants on Nantucket?
Pressly: Oh, I know. Florida’s a good place to stay close. They come down to visit in winter. [laughter]
Pressly: Whalers.
Steinhauer: In the 1930 Census, when you were seven years old, it shows that your father owned your home, that brownstone you were talking about.
Murray: Whalers! So they sailed the world. Pressly: Yes. And they kind of looked down on merchants back then, so Rowland Hussey Macy, R. H. Macy, was sort of looked down on, I think. [laughs] He was the relative we didn’t talk about. Steinhauer: There was a big age difference between your parents, wasn’t there? Pressly: Twelve years. He was good friends with one of my mother’s older brothers. Uncle Ridge introduced them. Murray: Was your father in World War I? Pressly: No, he had to take care of his mother and two sisters. Women didn’t work back then, and he had two unmarried sisters he had to stay home and take care of. He always was bitter about that.
Pressly: I’m sure he did. I knew nothing about his finances. Steinhauer: Well, the value of it in the census was shown as $53,000. Pressly: That seems high back then. Steinhauer: It seems very high. Did you grow up with money? Did you feel privileged? Pressly: Yeah, we had foreign help live in. When people all lost their money in [The Crash of 19]29, we weren’t affected. My mother was disowned, but she had her grandfather’s trust fund. Steinhauer: Why was she disowned?
Steinhauer: Anna, were you named for anyone in particular?
Pressly: Because she married an Irish and a Catholic. I don’t know which was worse, the Irish part or the Catholic part. [laughter]
Pressly: I think his mother was Anna.
Steinhauer: Were you raised with Catholicism?
Steinhauer: Did you have siblings?
Pressly: Yes, and my mother converted, which was another terrible thing back then. She was brought up Episcopalian, and Catholics were really looked down upon then.
Pressly: There were eight of us. I was number three. I was very close to two younger brothers, because we were like a year and a half apart. I’m still close to my brothers, two of them. Steinhauer: It sounds like you have good genes, that you still have your siblings—some of them at least?
Murray: Did you feel that prejudice in your own life?
Pressly: Four of us are left, which seems like nothing, you know. Four are gone.
Pressly: Oh, yes, even when I first came down here, they were very prejudiced still. We came down right after I was married, in [19]46. I think people were prejudiced here for quite a few years.
Steinhauer: That’s wonderful, though, that you've
Steinhauer: Back in New York, the census shows
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you had four servants: a waitress, nurse, cook, and chambermaid. Did you have relationships with any of them? Pressly: Oh, yes. Ellie was probably what you’d call a nanny, because she didn’t take care of us until we were two. The nurse took care of us until we were two, then turned us over to Ellie. Steinhauer: Were you able to keep those servants during the Depression?
started crying as soon as school let out and everyone went home and there I am sitting in the classroom. I didn’t stop crying until they brought me to my sister in fourth grade. My sister wanted nothing to do with me. [laughter] That went on for three days, and then our nanny came and got us. It was on 54th Street and we were on 92nd. I guess that was a long bus trip. That wasn’t working. Steinhauer: Where did you go to school after that?
Pressly: Oh, yes. And we moved out to the country with them, so we really needed a big house, because they were always live-in.
Pressly: When I was seven [1931], we left New York, because—well, that’s when the Crash came, but my mother was expecting baby number seven, so they decided the country would be better.
Steinhauer: Did you move out to the country because there were too many children in the house?
Steinhauer: Where did you go to school when you lived in the country?
Pressly: Yes. [laughter] We lived within commuting distance, a little up the Hudson, in Ardsley Park (or Ardsley-on-Hudson). I guess it was like an early, early development? Because it had a big entrance, and then it was down all along the Hudson River, and there was a golf course. Not related to it, but we were on it.
Pressly: Just the public school.
Steinhauer: Perhaps one developer built the houses?
Steinhauer: What grades were you there?
Pressly: No, I think everyone built their own, but it was kind of like a—
Pressly: I was there three years: sophomore, junior, senior.
Steinhauer: Planned unit development.
Steinhauer: I read that it was “one of the strictest and most austere of the Sacred Heart schools.”
Pressly: Planned unit, yeah. Steinhauer: Where did you go to school when you were in Manhattan? Pressly: I went to Spence School on 91st Street. It was right close. I had a very poor experience with my first school. [laughs] I had an older sister who went there, who really wanted no part of me. You know, three years older? And I went to kindergarten, but my sister was there all day. Kindergarten was let out at noontime, so my mother said I could just stay in the classroom till my sister got out. Well, I
Steinhauer: You went to a school in Noroton, Connecticut? Pressly: Noroton, yeah. That was run by nuns, and it was a boarding school.
Pressly: I’m sure it was. But I guess I was used to people bossing me around. It didn’t bother me. Steinhauer: Because you had a strict father? Pressly: Yeah. And Ellie was pretty strict. Steinhauer: Jean Kennedy Smith [a sister of US President John F. Kennedy] went there as well. Did you know her at all? Pressly: No, she was younger [born 1928]. I think
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they went with my younger sisters to Greenwich first—Jean and Pat, I think. Steinhauer:
So
you
graduated
from—
Pressly: Noroton. It might’ve been [19]40, because during nursing school, it turned [19]41 in January. Steinhauer: Where did you go to nursing school? Pressly: St. Vincent’s in New York City, which they’ve torn down. Steinhauer: Why did you want to become a nurse? Pressly: Rebellion. [laughter] My family were very upset about my becoming a nurse. Ellie just was horrified, and that was all I needed. [laughs] Steinhauer: I thought you were close to Ellie? Pressly: No, no! She was our nanny, and I think she much preferred the boys. Steinhauer: Okay, so you wanted to become a nurse out of rebellion. Pressly: Isn’t that terrible? [laughs] I probably read a book about “Somebody Girl Nurse.” Murray: At this point, 1940-41, things were pretty tense in Europe. Was that putting anything in your thoughts about becoming a nurse? Pressly: No. And it didn’t in our class. And when I went into nursing, nobody was thinking, when I graduate, I’ll go in the army.
better nurses back then because we were hands-on. We worked eight hours a day in the wards, and then took classes. Steinhauer: That’s a long day! Murray: So, 1941, the US goes to war! Did that make you want to go help? Pressly: No. I was a teenager, just in my own little world. Murray: How about your brothers? Pressly: I had one older brother [ James], and he was a paratrooper. I think he was in college in ROTC, and when he graduated, he went into the army. My younger brother [Robert], he had a terrible time getting through school. [laughs] Bobby is my closest brother. My father had a terrible time with him. He repeated a class more than anybody and my father said, “You’re going backwards.” He wanted to go in the army at seventeen, and I think at that time your parent had to sign, so Bobby went in the army. Murray: James, the paratrooper, do you know where he served? Pressly: I know nothing. You know, when we all came back, nobody said anything. Everyone just went on the next day. Nobody talked—so I have no idea what he did, where he was. Murray: How about Bob, since you were closer?
Steinhauer: Did you graduate in [19]44?
Pressly: Bobby was wounded twice. He was on a tank. I think he was the gunman, so he was always available to get blown off and stuff. He got two Purple Hearts, he was wounded.
Pressly: Yeah.
Murray: Did he serve in Europe?
Steinhauer: Did you graduate in any kind of specialty?
Pressly: Yes.
Pressly: No. We just graduated very well rounded. We thought—and I still think so—we were much
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Murray: Did he cross the Rhine? Pressly: Yeah, he did, and the Remagen Bridge and
all that, that was the part where he got wounded. Murray: Tom was just a couple of years younger than Bob. Did he join the service? Pressly: No, he was 4-F. He had his gallbladder out, and back then, you were on a diet for gallbladder, and the army couldn’t cope with diets.
Steinhauer: I learned that Congress ordered an increase in rank for the nurses— Pressly: Yeah, we finally went in as second lieutenants. Steinhauer: And you were given full officer status, including full retirement—
Murray: And William would have been too young.
Pressly: Officer’s pay. [laughs]
Pressly: Yeah, he was in the Korean War.
Steinhauer: Yes, that’s wonderful. That was in 1944. Were you aware of that change by the government?
Murray: Your family is a family of service. Pressly: Yeah. And my older sister [Kate] was in the Red Cross that went over to Europe at that time. They had a coffee-donut place for the soldiers and that sort of thing. Steinhauer: What did they do with their lives when they came back? Anything interesting among your siblings? Pressly: No, they all got jobs. That was their first concern, a job. I worked just for the summer, and then I got married. Everyone was getting married, of course. [laughter] There were a lot of marriages that year. Steinhauer: You have a younger sister, Marcia, and is Macy a sister or brother? Pressly: Sister. The “two little ones,” we called them. Steinhauer: It’s interesting that none of your class even thought that you might be going overseas.
Pressly: No. Steinhauer: And yet you did go overseas. How did that come about? Pressly: We were at some camp getting ready to go to Europe and we had all of our shots for Europe, and they suddenly pulled us out and sent us to [Fort Bragg] North Carolina to get ready to go to the Pacific. We got another set of shots [laughs] and went out to a little island called Tinian, which nobody ever heard of until the Atomic Bomb was sent off from Tinian. Steinhauer: Were you afraid? Pressly: I was probably too dumb to be afraid. [laughs] Murray: What made you join the army as a nurse? Pressly: It’s funny. Very few of our class discussed it. When I graduated, I worked for a little while, and then I thought, I think I’ll go in the army.
Pressly: I don’t ever remember any mention of it.
Murray: Where did you sign up? Anna in her Army fatigues. Courtesy Pressly Collection, HSPBC.
Pressly: In New
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York. Murray: Where did you get your basic training? Pressly: In the worst months of the year, in Atlantic City [NJ]. [laughs] We’re out doing our calisthenics— you know they have us out before dawn on the beach. Basic Training, Class 14. Murray: What was the official unit you were assigned to at first? Pressly: It was the 308th General Hospital. When we decided we were going to go to the Pacific—we were just to build a general hospital, for the invasion of Japan. Tinian apparently was the closest island that had lots of airfields. That’s all it was really. Murray: So, about the middle of February, you were thinking you were heading for Europe? Pressly: Yeah, that was right at the Battle of the Bulge [Dec. 1944 to Jan. 1945]. I was sent to Halloran Hospital on the tip of Staten Island, an
army hospital. They were getting a great deal of the wounded from the Battle of the Bulge. Once they were stabilized, they shipped them back. Steinhauer: In 1944 the hospitals in New Zealand, Fiji, and the Hebrides were closed down, and the nurses were moved onto the Marshall Islands, the Solomon Islands, and the Marianas, which is where you were—after the Allied forces had gained control. So they were moving you closer. Pressly: Yeah. And Tinian was the closest—if you look on the map, which I finally did—to ship the wounded down [from Japan]. Steinhauer: You were getting the wounded from where, when you were on Tinian? Pressly: We were just building the hospital. Steinhauer: You weren’t caring for any wounded? Pressly: No.
Anna's basic training Class 14. Courtesy Pressly Collection, HSPBC.
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Steinhauer: I read that the Pacific commanders kept the nurses away from the action and were very protective. I wonder if this is what you experienced: On Tinian, but also in other places, they fenced in the quarters and had 24/7 guards on the nurses’ quarters. Pressly: We didn’t think we were being protected from the enemy. We thought we were being protected from the other American soldiers. [laughs]
crew? Pressly: No, there were doctors and Seabees [construction battalions]. They always had Seabees along to build everything. Murray: Did you go straight from Seattle to Tinian, or did you have other stops along the way? Pressly: We stopped at Hawaii, but just stopped.
Steinhauer: Yes, that’s what I thought. [laughter]
Murray: You weren’t allowed off the ship?
Pressly: I don’t think it was the enemy. I have the awful feeling it was the soldiers.
Pressly: No, the men were, and we were not. [laughter] So I never did really see Hawaii.
Murray: Who hadn’t seen women in months.
Murray: From Hawaii, was it a straight trip to Tinian?
Pressly: I know, and here we are planted right in their midst. [laughs] Murray: Again, I’m going to take us back just a step. How did you get from North Carolina to the Pacific? Pressly: By train. We went to Seattle. And everything was secretive; I never understood it. Seattle has a bay— [Elliott Bay]. That’s how the big boats got out. We were loaded on the boat in the morning and left at three o’clock in the afternoon, after circling this bay. Doesn’t that sound crazy? We were on a boat so fast we didn’t have a convoy [all the way] to Tinian, which took about three weeks, because they would spot submarines and stuff. Here we were all alone because we were too fast to be in a convoy. Murray: As you were going from Seattle to Tinian, you crossed the Equator. Did you have any celebrations? Pressly: Oh, I’m sure we did.
Pressly: It was. And the three weeks could’ve been three weeks from Seattle. Steinhauer: Not too many people are available to tell us how things were in the situation you were in. What was it like living on Tinian? Pressly: We lived in Quonset huts. Steinhauer: Did you wear uniforms? Pressly: Yeah, because that’s all we had. Steinhauer: What kind of uniforms? Pressly:They had some big designer design us a whole new set of uniforms for war and places like Tinian, brown and white seersucker stripes. The ugliest things you ever saw. [laughs] We wore fatigues most of the time, because those were pants.
Murray: Did you get dunked in the Pacific?
Steinhauer: Was there anybody in particular that you developed a relationship with there?
Pressly: No, I think we were busy looking out for submarines.
Pressly: I dated quite a bit, everybody did, but it was all very fleeting.
Steinhauer: Were you all nurses, except for the
Steinhauer: How about any women friends among
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the nurses, anybody you stayed in touch with? Pressly: I had a few friends, but I lost touch with them as soon as I got back. And we didn’t know many enlisted people. Steinhauer: How many people were there? Pressly: There were 93 nurses. I don’t know how many doctors they had. Steinhauer: Pauline Denman was in the 308th and she self-published in a book all her letters that she
Steinhauer: In January of 1945, the 374th Station Hospital was established on Tinian. Did they have more than one hospital? Pressly: No, because there were no injured! I mean unless someone got a cold or something. Steinhauer: The next month, they began receiving casualties from Iwo Jima, and then very heavy casualties after the Okinawa campaign began. Pressly: That was before I got there then.
Friends and fellow Army nurses captured by Anna Finn Pressly. Courtesy Pressly Collection, HSPBC. wrote home.
Steinhauer: What did you do on Tinian?
Pressly: Oh, I have a whole bunch of mine someplace. My mother saved them. Somebody had a camera on Tinian. I have Brownie snapshots of Tinian and up on Japan.
Pressly: Went to the beach. [laughs] Nothing constructive, I’m sure.
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Steinhauer: I read that you were told not to go to the other side of the island because there might be
guerrillas, Japanese who were dangerous. Pressly: Oh, yeah, the Japanese were back up in [the mountains]. I don’t remember ever being told not to go there, but we didn’t. That was where the Atomic bomb was, of course. Both of them were there [the bombs for Hiroshima and Nagasaki], and there was a big cement-looking place out in the middle of nowhere just sitting there. That’s where they held the bombs, I guess. Some of my friends dated some of the fliers who flew [Enola Gay], [Col. Paul] Tibbets and some of those, the guys that flew the atomic bomb. I didn’t. I think there was just a small group of B-29s at the airfield there. Otherwise, everything was B-17s. Murray: So, you were on Tinian for over a year. Pressly: No, right after the war when Japan opened, we were shipped up to Japan. I was probably there later than you figured. I don’t think people realize today that we weren’t at all sure that we were going to win that war. We were just afraid. When we went up the bay or river along the edge of Japan, I thought, there’s no way our soldiers could land. It’s just cliffs right down to the water. There was no sandy beach or anything to land troops on. Murray: When did you sail up along Japan? Pressly: After the bomb was dropped. Murray: They loaded all the nurses from Tinian on ships up to Japan? Pressly: Yes. Steinhauer: When did you learn what had happened there? Pressly: They woke us up one night at midnight and just took us—we took our gas masks and all of our equipment—to the end of the island. Because, you see, they had the second bomb, for Nagasaki, sitting on the island. They didn’t know whether that might go off because the other one was dropped. Like it would be a big help to go to the end of the island.
[laughs] I guess they felt they should do something. Nobody told us why, so we were probably the last to know. Murray: When did you hear about VE Day? [Victory in Europe Day, 5/8/1945] Pressly: I remember we celebrated. I may’ve been down in North Carolina. Murray: So then you knew you were being sent to the hot spot. Did you hear about them dropping the bomb while you were still on Tinian? Pressly: Yeah, when they brought us back from the end of the island, they told us. At twenty-two I hate to think what stupid reaction I might’ve had, but the thought that it might’ve helped end the war made me very happy. Steinhauer: You really didn’t have the knowledge to know what it meant, did you? You didn’t know anything about radiation. Take us through that next period. How did you leave Tinian? Pressly: Well, I think when the war was over—shortly thereafter, after the Nagasaki bomb dropped—they just shipped us all on boats to Japan. Steinhauer: You didn’t realize the first bomb was going from Tinian. Did you realize the second one? Pressly: Yeah, we realized when they woke us up in the middle of the night and took us to the end of the island. Then we knew they had a second bomb on the island and that’s what they were scared of. Murray: What did you do to celebrate VJ Day? [Victory in Japan Day, 9/2/1945] Pressly: I don’t know that we did anything. We were probably the last ones to know. Murray: Did they tell you ahead of time they were sending you to Japan? Pressly: The army doesn’t tell you anything.
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Steinhauer: They sent you right into where the bombings had taken place, right? Pressly: Oh, yeah, I went to Hiroshima and Nagasaki. Steinhauer: How did the Japanese people receive you? Pressly: The women—we liked them so much, but the men, we had nothing to do with. Steinhauer: Were they hateful because you were Americans? Pressly: No, I think they were pretty beaten. Well, they started the war. Steinhauer: Did you help take care of people? Pressly: We took care of just soldiers. We never took care of civilians. I was sent off on temporary duty because there was a tremendous meningitis outbreak among the soldiers, and some diphtheria, which I never understood because everyone gets a diphtheria [vaccine] shot. I was shipped to Kobe or someplace, maybe Osaka, to take care of the meningitis cases. American soldiers. Murray: What were your impressions of Nagasaki or Hiroshima? Pressly: A group of us went. I have pictures of Hiroshima and it was just flat. It just stunned me that the people just built a little cave in the rubble and lived in it. I guess, where else are they gonna go? I never remember seeing children. They must’ve been there, but I don’t remember. They just seemed to be going on. We couldn’t talk to them, because who knew Japanese? I certainly didn’t. We just saw them going about their business, like they opened up their stores. Steinhauer: How long was this after the bombs dropped? Pressly: I guess we went to Japan within a month? I
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think I went on temporary duty first, and then I went to Hiroshima with a group of friends. Hiroshima was the third largest city in Japan, and the rubble was much higher than knee-high, almost as high as I was. Steinhauer: Do you remember coming back to the States? Pressly: Seems to me we came back much quicker than we went, and then we were discharged almost immediately. I remember I was mad that I never got to California. So I think we came back to Seattle and took the train home. Murray: Were you released in Seattle or New York? Pressly: I think we went to New York, but I can’t be sure. My brothers and sister were coming back. We all sort of came back at the same time. Murray: Did you sign up for the length of the war plus six months? Pressly: No, we just signed up for the war. We weren’t signed up for any length of time. Steinhauer: How did you meet your husband? Pressly: He was a tennis pro, so when he came back from the war, he just went back to tennis pro-ing. I was playing tennis one day and met him, and we got married too soon after. [laughter] I don’t know why my parents permitted it, but I didn’t know him that long. It was like five weeks. My father was still my father, but I guess he looked at all these eight children and thought, well [laughs], and of course he liked Jim. He was a lot older than I was. Murray: Tell us about Jim Pressly’s military service. Pressly: I don’t know much because we never talked about it, but he was in Europe, and he was a captain. Murray: Was he in the army as well? Pressly: Yeah. [To enlist] you had to be under thirtyfive, I think. His birthday was in September, and he
left his job [in August] to sign up for the army before he was thirty-five. Steinhauer: Where did he go to college? Pressly: He went to a little college in South Carolina called Erskine. He went to Columbia, I think, for his M[aster of] A[rts]. Steinhauer: Okay, so you got married in— Pressly: October.
Pressly: Yeah. Murray: Did you travel with him on the circuit? Pressly: No, he was a teaching pro. He just taught, because he was thirty-nine when we married. Murray: Where did you settle when you married?
Steinhauer: October of [19]46?
Pressly: We went north and south. He had a job up north [Connecticut] in the summer, and then we were right here in West Palm Beach, Palm Beach, when we came south.
Pressly: Yeah.
Steinhauer: Was your summer home in Bridgeport?
Steinhauer: Was this in Connecticut?
Pressly: It was in Southport, which was just outside of Bridgeport.
Pressly: Yeah. It was short notice, because he had to leave for his job, but my mother threw it together with the help of my older sister, very quickly. The reception was at the house.
Steinhauer: Where was he a pro up there? Pressly: He had several different places he worked.
Steinhauer: Your husband’s name was—
Steinhauer: How did you end up in Palm Beach?
Pressly: James Grier Pressly. That’s where [my grandson, James Grier Pressly III] comes from. Steinhauer: He was born where and when?
Pressly: Well, when we came down, that’s the only place he knew and had worked. First he had a private job for a year with one man, and then he got the Jupiter Island [Club] job. He wanted us to stay in Palm Beach, because it was so much nicer. By then we had a child or two or three, and he felt it was a better place to bring up children.
Pressly: South Carolina, in 1907. Steinhauer: He was, as you say, much older than you, There was also quite an age difference between your parents. Pressly: They were twelve years, and he was sixteen years older than I was. I was twenty-two and he was thirty-nine. Steinhauer: You didn’t have any reservations about marrying somebody that much older? Pressly: No, because he seemed very young, and he looked very young. Steinhauer: Was he a tennis pro the whole time you were married?
Steinhauer: Do you remember who the man was that he worked for? Pressly: Oh, gosh—he invented something to do with bicycles—maybe the chain?—and he made bicycles. Steinhauer: What was your husband doing for him? Pressly: He was a tennis pro. He played tennis with him. And he used to play tennis with the Kays, and several families. Originally he was with the Bath & Tennis [Club], before we were married. Then he got the job at Jupiter Island, which he kept always.
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Steinhauer: Was his family already down here?
Pressly: Oh they must have, yeah.
Pressly: No, he had no family, except a sister and brother in North and South Carolina.
Steinhauer: The [19]20s.
Steinhauer: He came down here on his own to teach tennis during the Season? Pressly: Yeah, he was very much on his own. His parents had died. Steinhauer: You mentioned your children. Would you tell us their names and when they were born? Pressly: Jamie [ James Grier Pressly II] was born [in 19]47, I guess. Kathy, she was born in 1949, Barbara was born in [19]50, Dave was born in [19]53, and Julie was born in [19]59. Steinhauer: What was your married life like when you first lived here? All the way back in the [19]40s, life was a little different here. Pressly: Very different. It was like a little town, and we had a little apartment. We were only here in the winter, so we got a little apartment right off the ocean in Palm Beach. West Palm Beach was just a little village. Pressly: Then after [the apartment], we had a good friend, Ben Walton, a builder, and Ben built our house on Colonial Lane [in Palm Beach]. Everyone was young families, so it was a great place for the children. Steinhauer: Mr. Walton built a lot of buildings in Palm Beach.
Murray: How long did you do the seasonal commute? Pressly: Oh, I think Jim was about eighty-six when we stopped, or eighty-four? Steinhauer: That’s in the early 1990s. Murray: How did your kids handle going back and forth? They had summer and winter friends. Pressly: They didn’t know any different. They thought it was great. Murray: What time of year did you move down here every year? Pressly: As they got a little older, I came down so they could open school here, and Jim came down in October. Then he left in May and I would leave early June. Murray: When the kids were done in school? Pressly: Yeah. Murray: In the late 1940s and ’50s they would have a whole group of kids come in later, OctoberNovember. Pressly: Yeah. See, the winter kids. Murray: I was wondering if your kids fell into that.
Murray: His name keeps coming up for houses that they’re trying to preserve even now over there.
Pressly: Well, when they were little, but I thought they ought to just be in one place.
Pressly: I know. You ought to interview Ben Walton. The son. He’s a physician assistant, at the veterans hospital, I think. Mr. and Mrs. Walton, my friend Ben’s father, was E.B.
Steinhauer: Who were your neighbors on Colonial Lane?
Murray: They came down in the teens, didn’t they?
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Pressly: The Waltons, and the Sewells, which is another old family, and the Parkers—he owned an automobile agency. Studebakers, I think, not even
made anymore. [laughs] [Also] the Fergusons—Iler was a Cook and they’re an old, old family here.
Murray: Do you remember the hoopla about them visiting the island when they were in the White House?
Steinhauer: Were the O’Connells neighbors?
Murray: Do you remember the Secret Service and all of that nonsense?
Pressly: No. Pebs O’Connell was Ben Walton’s sister. We always called her “Pebs.” It was after her aunt, whose name was Perry-Belle. Steinhauer: Is this Phil O’Connell Sr.’s wife? Pressly: Yes. Murray: Did you know the Chillingworths? Pressly: No, but I felt like I knew them, because everybody knew them that always lived here. Murray: They went missing in June of 1955. Would you have been gone for the summer? Pressly: Probably. You know, I read about it and heard about it and we were all upset about it, but I actually didn’t know—what was the daughter or the wife, Ann Chillingworth?
Pressly: Oh yeah, the Secret Service came. The Waltons lived right across the street from them actually, and they had a little playhouse, and the kids could climb up to the top of the playhouse and look over and see what was going on. [laughter] That was our big excitement. Murray: Some of your kids were pretty close in age to Caroline, weren’t they? No? Pressly: No, Caroline probably was younger. She might’ve been my youngest daughter’s age, sort of. Murray: Where were you when you heard about the JFK assassination? Pressly: I think I was Christmas shopping. I came home and the maid was just so upset, you know. She had just heard it, so she told me about it.
Murray: Ann was the daughter.
Murray: Had you voted for JFK?
Pressly: She was a friend of some of my [friends], like Jane Caruso. In fact, Jane was speaking about her yesterday.
Pressly: I think I was Republican. [laughs]
Steinhauer: Did the Kennedys live near you?
Pressly: Uh-huh.
Pressly: Yeah, right up at the end of the street.
Steinhauer: What do you remember about segregation when you first lived here?
Steinhauer: Did you know them at all? Pressly: No. But I remember Jackie used to walk— what was her daughter’s name? Steinhauer: Caroline. Pressly: Caroline, when she was real little, they would walk down Colonial Lane to go to the lake, to Lake Trail.
Steinhauer: Was your maid African American?
Pressly: Well, it was just a fact. Nobody thought anything about it. You know, when it just exists, you don’t think. Of course, it didn’t exist up north. But I never had any experience with blacks up north. Steinhauer: How about the difference between Palm Beach and West Palm Beach? Did you feel a sense of being in a different world on that side of the bridge? Pressly: No, but I always had a wonderful feeling
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when I crossed that bridge to Palm Beach. I don’t know, there’s something about crossing that bridge, with the big royal palms and everything. It’s just a nice feeling. Murray: It makes your heart feel a little softer, doesn’t it? Pressly: Yeah. And of course, you know, that was my town, and that’s where my children grew up. Murray: Were you ever involved with politics in Palm Beach? Pressly: Never. Except to read about it. Steinhauer: You lived on Colonial Lane until 1961, and then you moved. Do you remember why you moved?
you know, they opened one in Palm Beach. The first grocery store; that was a tremendous hassle. Murray: What about your drug store choice when you had sick kids? Pressly: I always went to Lewis [Pharmacy] in Palm Beach, because it was just up the corner. Murray: It was at 235 South County Road, right? Do you still use them? Pressly: No, I don’t now, but I know him. Tee died, I think, and I see Tom every now and then. Murray: What about clothes shopping?
Pressly: We outgrew the house. [laughs]
Pressly: We had Norman’s and Anthony’s. [laughs] I miss Norman’s. I mean, Clematis isn’t the clothes shopping place anymore, is it? I’ve reduced myself to catalogues.
Steinhauer: More children.
Murray: Did you ever shop at Pioneer Linens?
Pressly: Yeah.
Pressly: Oh, yes! And I still do.
Steinhauer: Tell us about your next home.
Murray: Did you know George?
Pressly: On Seaspray [Avenue], we loved that, because I could look out the kitchen door and watch my youngest go to school. She’d have to go around the block, but it was just the next block. And I liked being in the middle of town, the middle of activity.
Pressly: Sort of. Everybody knew him so I felt like I knew him, and was his daughter also in the store?
Murray: Where’d you go for groceries?
Murray: Daughter Penny Murphy still owns it. Pressly: You know, that was a neat shop, Pioneer. And there was another shop next door.
Pressly: I went to West Palm, I went to A&P. It was—what’s the name of that shopping center? Sears was there.
Murray: Mercantile?
Murray: Palm Coast Plaza?
Murray: There were great shoe stores along there.
Pressly: Yeah, I guess it was there. And it was a small A&P. And then I discovered that nobody goes to A&P down here. That’s where I went up north. So then I did switch to Publix, I guess. I never went to Winn-Dixie. I went to Publix on Southern, and then,
Pressly: I know, the shoe stores were great. I guess all these big shopping centers and discount places have ruined mom-and-pop stores.
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Pressly: Mercantile.
Steinhauer: You mentioned earlier that you had
Palm Beach Junior College ca. 1950s. Courtesy HSPBC. worked for a little bit at Lourdes? Pressly: Lourdes McKeen. It had just opened. I thought, I can’t imagine working in a nursing home— that seemed like the end of the road—but I thought, maybe I’ll give it a shot. And I really, really loved it. Steinhauer: They opened about 1960, so that’s about the time? Pressly: Yeah. My children had grown up. I think Julia might have still been in college. I took a refresher course down at Palm Beach Junior College, which is now Palm Beach State College, and decided to go back in. I really enjoyed it. Steinhauer: How long did you do that for? Pressly: I think eleven or twelve years. I never worked full-time, only part-time. I would work a lot of weekends, because Jim worked weekends.
Murray: So, he kept up teaching until the end of his life? That’s incredible! Pressly: He broke his hip finally, and it was shortly thereafter that he died. Murray: I’m sorry to hear that. What did you and Jim do for fun? Pressly: Jim worked seven days a week. [laughter] So, we didn’t have a lot of time. Of course, he particularly didn’t want to do sports, but we played some golf in his off time. Murray: Did you go to the movies in the evening, or take the kids to a show? Pressly: Not much. The day that we got a TV was the end of our movie-going. [laughs] He said, why go to the movies when you have this TV right in the house? It was an enormous thing but like a ten-inch
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screen. Ours was so-called “portable,” so it sat on something else, but it was this giant cover and then this small— Murray: Black-and-white? Pressly: Oh, yes. Steinhauer: When your children were growing up, were you active in the PTA [Parent Teachers Association]? Pressly: Oh, yeah, I did all those things. Steinhauer: What was it like back then? It’s probably different today. Pressly: I wonder. I know that I was president for one year of the Palm Beach PTA, and I had to go to the county. All the presidents got together for the county. I don’t know that we made one decision. [laughs] Murray: Did you raise money for special projects at the school? Pressly: Oh yeah, we had a rummage sale every year, that was our big project. Steinhauer: What schools did your children attend? Pressly: They all went to Palm Beach Public,
and then Palm Beach High [School], and then the two youngest went to Cardinal Newman High [School]. Other than that, they all went to Palm Beach Public. Steinhauer: Were you going to Catholic church on Sundays as a family? Pressly: Oh yeah, St. Edward’s. Murray: You probably know the Scheerers, Dr. Rudy and JoAnne. They were big supporters and attended there for years, and their children got married there. Pressly: Oh yeah. My children got married there too. Steinhauer: Did you practice a faith throughout your life? You probably got a bad taste early on with Catholicism. Pressly: Oh, no, I always went to church. Steinhauer: And your children were brought up in Catholicism? Pressly: Yeah. Jim was not a Catholic, but he never interfered. Steinhauer: Back to the children’s activities, what about Scouts? Pressly: Oh, yes, I was a Cub Scout leader. I was a Brownies, Girl Scouts, Cub Scouts. Steinhauer: Did you go on camping trips? Pressly: No. Steinhauer: You drew the line at camping trips. [laughter] Pressly: I drew the line at camping trips. Steinhauer: Were you in the Junior League?
Palm Beach Public School. Courtesy HSPBC.
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Pressly: Yes. Steinhauer: I’ll bet that was different back in those days too. Pressly: Yeah, you had to be invited. Now I think you just decide you want to go. And we did volunteer work. Now everyone works, so nobody really does volunteer work. Steinhauer: Did you choose one particular cause? Pressly: Yeah, we kind of did. I can’t remember if that was Junior League or whatever Junior League turned into. We did eyes, ears, nose, throat. We were very big on that. We underwrote the doctors going in, or whoever would test eyes and ears, at all the public schools around. Steinhauer: When you had fundraisers with the Junior League, what kind of fundraising did you do? Any big social events? Pressly: No, not that kind of thing. I think it was more luncheons. Steinhauer: You would’ve become what they call a “sustainer” in 1962, just by age. Did you stay involved at all after that? Pressly: No, I just became a sustainer, and I still get the newspaper. It’s all so very different now. Steinhauer: There’s an organization that you were a member of—I don’t know if you still are—called the “PEO Sisterhood.” Tell us about that. Pressly: Yeah, it was started in the Midwest in college. It’s very secretive, you know, what the PEO means. But we do a lot of good.
Pressly: —had to have it secretive. But it’s international, and we do raise a lot of money for scholarships, that’s actually what we do, for women. We have college scholarships and if someone wants to go back and get a second degree, they need to go back to work and they need more college or more education, they can apply to us. Steinhauer: You’re still involved with it? Pressly: Oh, yeah. You’re kind of always involved with it. Steinhauer: What does PEO stand for? Pressly: Oh, that’s a big secret. Nobody in the world knows! Steinhauer: Okay. Murray: 1960s, did you watch the evening news? Pressly: I’m sure we did. I mean, that was the big thing, wasn’t it? Murray: How about the war in Vietnam as it played out on your TV? Pressly: Yeah, Jamie is the only one I know that was involved in the war. He didn’t go overseas because he was married. But he signed up and went. Murray: Your son Jamie? Pressly: Yeah. Murray: He signed up for the army, the marines, the navy? Pressly: The army.
Steinhauer: Why was it secretive?
Murray: Is that Grier’s dad?
Pressly: Because a bunch of college girls— [laughs]
Pressly: Yeah.
Murray: Sorority sisters.
Murray: That must’ve been worrisome for you with the Draft.
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Pressly: Yeah, Dave was in the Draft, and I was so happy that he got a high number. Jamie signed up. Dave—you know, we figured we’d had enough people in the war[s]. So, he waited to get drafted or not get drafted. Murray: You were very lucky, you never lost anyone to any of the wars. Pressly: No, none of my brothers, nobody. Bobby was injured, and that’s the only one. Murray: You said your two youngest children, Dave and Julie, both went to Cardinal Newman. Would that be because Palm Beach High turned to Twin Lakes High School?
five busloads appeared with blacks. Palm Beach was not a big school. It did have a junior high, so it had quite a few classes. But the first day of school when they desegregated, five busloads of kids. That’s a lot of children. Murray: How did your children react to being educated with blacks, who they had not had a lot of interaction with? Pressly: I don’t remember any conversation. I guess they just took it in stride. Nobody thought much about it that actually went to school. Murray: Do you remember taking your daughters shopping for school clothes in the [19]60s along Clematis Street?
Pressly: It might’ve been. I think they had a better education at Cardinal Newman by then. I hate to say, when Cardinal Newman first opened, we kind of turned up our noses at it. [laughs]
Pressly: No. I remember shopping on Clematis, and I hate to say it, but I made most of the girls’ clothes.
Steinhauer: You didn’t think it was great academically?
Pressly: I went to Mac’s [Mac] Fabrics [426 Clematis Street], which I just love better than anything. You know, it was more fun looking at that material, never once consulted with them. I made something and they wore it. [laughter]
Pressly: No. No. We just didn’t think much of it. Then I decided it was pretty good. Murray: I think by the mid-to-late [19]60s it had become the best high school. Pressly: I think so. Murray: I grew up here too, and some of my friends went there. They were doing much harder homework than I was at Palm Beach Gardens High School. Pressly: That was supposed to be a better school than— Murray: It was a very good school, yes. But when I was in school—and your youngest is just a few years younger—she probably went through the same thing. We went through desegregation of the schools. Pressly: Oh yes, I remember that. In Palm Beach,
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Murray: There’s nothing wrong with that!
Murray: During the 1960s, that was a time of change, of free love and the hippies and marijuana and everything going on. Did that change how you dressed them? Pressly: No, I just went on. I made Julia a lot of pantsuits, remember those were kind of “in.” Murray: Yes, double-knit. Pressly: They just wore what they wore. None of the outside things really got to me, really, what happened. Steinhauer: Do you want to tell us a little bit about your children and how they turned out? Pressly: Well, I think they all turned out, thank the
Lord. Barbara’s divorced, but the other two [girls] are married, and I like all my in-laws, which is nice. I think the world of my daughters-in-law and my sonsin-law. I have ten grandchildren and seven greatgrandchildren. Murray: It must be fun at Thanksgiving. Does everyone come out? Pressly: Everybody comes, and everybody has all these extended families. You know, it’s never just the family, but the mother and the father. Steinhauer: Do they come to your house? Pressly: No, we used to, but I’m in an apartment now, so now we go around to different houses.
anything of it. Murray: You said there was a six-week courtship before you were married. Pressly: And it all worked out beautifully. I mean, today everyone would have a fit. Murray: Did you work at being married? Pressly: I never thought about working at it. Probably we both did our part, but I never thought about it as working at it. Steinhauer: Do you think it was a positive thing that he was gone so much working?
Steinhauer: You live at Portofino?
Pressly: It probably was, you know? [laughs] At the time I didn’t think it was so great.
Pressly: Mm-hm, which I love.
Steinhauer: You had the children to keep you busy.
Steinhauer: Before you lived at Portofino, you lived at 210 Miramar Way in West Palm Beach?
Pressly: Yeah, but you see, I had to do it all. I mean that was just life, you know? Back in our day, things happened, and it was just—that’s what happens.
Pressly: Yeah, just for a short time. [1989-1993] Murray: Do you want to talk about when your husband died? Pressly: No, he was sick for a long time, and he died just— Steinhauer: Of an illness? Pressly: Yeah, and he was 94, I think. Murray: Nice long life. Were you happy? Pressly: Yes, I was very happy! You know, things happen, and you go along and you don’t think
Steinhauer: You didn’t have the expectations. Pressly: Yeah, now people have so many expectations. I didn’t—it wasn’t my money and his money, because I didn’t earn money. We didn’t all get jobs or continue jobs when we got married. We just wanted to bring up our children, and he was the breadwinner and I brought up the children. I think it was simpler back then. [laughs] Steinhauer: Well, thank you again, Anna, it was lovely. Pressly: It was so nice of you all to do this.
Note: Oral history cannot be depended on for complete accuracy, based as it is on complex human memory and communication of that memory, which varies due to factors such as genetics, social culture, gender, and education. Nonetheless, oral history is a valuable tool in historical study. The HSPBC has noted any known inaccuracies in footnotes.
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E
ach March, the Women’s initiative of the Historical Society of Palm Beach County celebrates Women’s History Month. This year, a calendar full of events culminated with A Portrait of Leadership, a Virtual Panel Discussion with four local women who make history in leadership roles as professionals and in their communities. Evening Anchor Tiffany Kenney of WPBF 25 News moderated the event as the women addressed challenges they have overcome and how gender has shaped their careers. The four panelists are all History Makers. In each of their business roles, they have power and control over issues that affect our entire county and often well beyond. You can still hear how they reached this point, what they think on matters beyond their realms, and how they would advise those who will follow in their footsteps. Watch the video at our new website, PBCHistory.org, or use the QR Code below.
Presenting Sponsors
Loreen Beisswenger Farish Charitable Organization Mary Alice Fortin Foundation Pat Moran Family Foundation
Champion Corporate Sponsors Florida Power & Light Company Leeds Custom Design Scaife Family Foundation
Visionary Corporate Sponsors
Christian Angle Real Estate Kirchhoff & Associates Architects Nievera Williams Design PNC Bank Sciame Homes Searcy Denney Scarola Barnhart & Shipley PA
Sugar Cane Growers Cooperative of Florida West Palm Beach Downtown Development Authority
Victor Sponsors
John Archer Abby Beebe Alexandra & Joe Chase Susan & Christopher Cowie Frances Fisher Mary & Mark Freitas Garden of Life Sunni Johnson Colleen Orrico Pioneer Linens Kelly Rooney Tracy Smith Samantha Storkerson Rachel Tessoff Dinyar Wadia
Advocate Sponsors
Brenda Bailey Laurel Baker (in honor of Rebel Cook) Nancy Brinker Business Development Board of Palm Beach County Mark Elhilow Dorothy Jacks Lynn & Russell Kelley Marti LaTour & George Elmore Gary S. Lesser Kristy & Grier Pressly Alice & Cater Randolph
Suffragist Sponsors Katherine Dickenson Lisa McDermott-Perez
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Pioneer Nursing in Palm Beach County
Millie Gildersleeve, a pioneer of Palm Beach County, was the first midwife in the area and worked with Dr. Richard Potter. Courtesy Gildersleeve Collection, HSPBC.
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Introduction
In the summer of 2020 while reviewing paperwork in our archives we came across a most fascinating document. An interview by J.D. Peebles of pioneer nurse, Millie Gildersleeve. The discovery of this interview has given us a rare glimpse into the life of Millie, a Black woman who came to the Lake Worth area in the 1880s and became wellknown for her midwifery.
Note: In the following transcript, italics indicate Millie's additional commentary after reviewing the writeup.
Related by Millie Gildersleeve, Colored Pioneer Nurse, 409 21st. Street, West Palm Beach, Fla., Dec. 28th. 1935 written by J. D. Peebles
I
came here in 1886 from Georgia, that time my name was Chapman, then I married Jacob Gildersleeve. I began nursing almost as soon as I came here. I took my first case in 1887. I counted 200 white children that I brought into the world, and over 25 colored, then I got tired of counting and stopped. I took many cases as a midwife when there was no doctor. But most of my work came to me through the doctors. I always cooperated with them, needed their advice in my nursing, and wanted their good will. When I first started the people would come after me in boats, or with teams, sometimes a cart. There were no roads to follow, only trails. Doctor Potter was our first doctor. He came from Cincinnati. I worked with him nursing his patients, often going in his sail boat. He was the only doctor here for years. He first lived at Hypoluxo, then moved to Palm Beach. He was a bachelor, and lived with his mother, and sister, and brothers, George W. Potter, and B[ernard]. M. Potter. Dr. Potter used to cup his patients sometimes, but the doctors don’t cup them any more. He was one of those deep thinkers, never talked much, but his work was always efficient. He was a man of medium height. He was really a good man. He did so much charity work that the public knew nothing about. One family that he helped the husband was a boo[k]keeper, but couldn’t get any word of that kind, and so did nothing. They had four small children, the oldest not over seven years. They had nothing to eat but sweet potatoes and white bacon. She didn’t have clothes for her baby. A lady had given me some clothes so I took them to her, I gave her a bunch of clothes. Dr. Potter sent them a box of groceries every week, he gave them medicines, and he gave them a purse. He said to me, “They will never be able to pay for medical services.” But the lady said, “I’ve got some syrup coming from Georgia, when it comes I’ll pay you in syrup.” I said to her, “I can’t use that much syrup.” Dr. Potter was a great one for that kind of charity work. I always gave the same attention to the poor that I have to the rich, even when I knew they couldn’t pay. They are human beings just the same.
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I always told my patients to be natural, to do any thing they had to do around the house, to take proper exercise. It’s no use for any women to keep still during pregnancy. I had a case of a wealthy girl whose parents had pampered her. When she became pregnant she was afraid for her parents to learn her condition. When they did they would hardly let her move her foot. They wouldn’t let her go out of the house alone. She was scared to death, afraid to do any thing. Her husband brought her to me. I told her to do any thing she wanted to do, to take walks, and to do work in the house. She took my advice, dismissed her cook, took walks, and did her own work, and acted natural. When her time came her mother was alarmed but she was calm and nice as she could be, not at all excited. We couldn’t let her mother stay in the room, so she sat just outside the door. The baby came so peacefully that it was all over before she knew it. In all my nursing I have had only two or three still births. When people live natural as they did in those days it is a big help to expectant mothers. There would be fewer still births today if people lived more natural. Dr. Potter used to treat the Indians sometimes. He told me that Indians squaws would give birth to their children and go on about their work the same day. If they were on a tramp they would step aside a while, then get back in the ranks with the baby in their arms and keep going with the others. That’s because they live close
Typescript of interview showing Mrs. Gildersleeve's notations. Courtesy Gildersleeve Collection, HSPBC.
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to nature, and they take plenty of exercise. Dr. Peak wanted me for a certain case, but the woman wanted another nurse who had been recommended to her. He told her if she had the other nurse she would have to go to the hospital, but if she had me she could stay home. He said, “If you have Millie I know she’ll be on the job. She won’t be out joy riding or going to shows.” Dr. Hood said I had a wonderful record because I never lost a mother in childbirth. Dr. Merrill asked me one day, “Millie, how many women have you lost under your care.” I said, “Not one, I never lost a woman.” He said, “It’s because you keep clean hands.” I retired a little over a year ago. I bought this house and the furniture with the money that was paid me for nursing. I helped my husband pay for our first home in Riviera, and I own another house on Sapodilla Street I rent out by the week. It was paid for out of my savings from nursing. The white people have always been good to me. Use this too if you like it. Millie wanted me to see her fine furniture and showed me over the house. She has a piano and radio, rugs on the floor, tapestry on the walls, modern kitchen equipment, electric refrigerator, iron, percolator, fan. She also showed me the yard with its different kinds of palm and mango trees, and many foliage and flowering plants. She is proud of her industry and thrift, of the fact that the white people always liked her, and she never had any trouble with them. West Palm Beach, Fla April 1st 1936 [Signed by Millie Gildersleeve]
Millie Gildersleeve's signature on the document. Courtesy Gildersleeve Collection, HSPBC.
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Historical Society of Palm Beach County 2020-2021 Officers
Board Chair Thomas M. Kirchhoff First Vice Chair Richard S. Johnson Jr. Second Vice Chair Mark Stevens Secretary Joseph Chase Treasurer Thomas Burns, CPA Member at Large Jeffrey Alderton John P. Archer Russell P. Kelley Penny Murphy Peter Nicoletti Past Chair J. Grier Pressly III Member Emeritus Robert W. Ganger
Board of Governors
Christian Angle Hampton Beebe M. Cheryl Burkhardt Sharon Daley Graham G. Davidson George L. Ford III Mary Freitas David Goodlett The Honorable Bradley G. Harper Lisa McDermott Perez Stephen Richman Andrew Sciame Karen Swanson Keith Williams Vernique Williams Alisha Winn, Ph.D.
Ex-Officio Board Members
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Alexandria Ayala School Board of Palm Beach County Danielle Hickox Moore Town of Palm Beach Council Member Mack Bernard Palm Beach County Commissioner
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CORPORATE MEMBERSHIP
HONORING
Jim
Ponce
The Historical Society of Palm Beach County has established The James Augustine Ponce Endowment for Exhibition Development at the Community Foundation for Palm Beach and Martin Counties, in honor of the late James Augustine Ponce, Palm Beach's "two-legged, historical landmark." Through the Community Foundation’s Forever Nonprofit Endowment Challenge, HSPBC was selected to receive a $25,000 matching grant for setting up the permanent endowment. The growth from this investment will support the annual special exhibitions in the Richard and Pat Johnson Palm Beach County History Museum. Please contact us to learn how your investment can provide an opportunity to link our shared past to future generations at 561.832.4164 ext. 100 or info@pbchistory.org.
Corporate Membership with the HSPBC offers benefits for your employees and clients to fully experience and enjoy the Johnson History Museum and other Society programs year-round.
Benefits to all Corporate Members:
Admission to all lectures Professionally supported access to the archives and research library; amount varies by level Invitations by mail to all special events 20% discount for all employees in our Museum Store Opportunity to hold an event at the 1916 Historic Court House Listing in the Tustenegee journal; access by mail and electronically 10% discount on all use fees in the Research Department
Trailblazer $5,000
Opportunity to hold a corporate event at the Museum with no administrative honorarium Exclusive, curator-led private tour of the Museum’s exhibitions and collections for up to 12 guests Complimentary admission to VIP events for six guests Up to two hours consultation with curator on how to set up archives. (4) 16” x 20” prints of a historical photograph(s) from the HSPBC Archives. Restrictions apply. Linked logo on the Historical Society’s website www.pbchistory.org
Frontier $2,500
Opportunity to host a corporate event at the Museum with 50% discount on administrative honorarium Private docent-led tour of the Museum’s exhibitions for up to 30 guests Complimentary admission to VIP events for four guests Up to two hours consultation with curator on how to set up archives. (3) 16” x 20” prints of a historical photograph(s) from the HSPBC Archives. Restrictions apply. Linked logo on the Historical Society website www.pbchistory.org
Providencia $1,000
Complimentary admission to VIP events for two guests (2) 16” x 20” prints of a historical photograph(s) from the HSPBC Archives. Restrictions apply. Linked logo on the Historical Society website www.pbchistory.org
Homestead $500
(1) 16” x 20” print of a historical photograph from the HSPBC Archives. Restrictions apply. Two professionally supported research in the HSPBC Archives /Library, by appointment Company name and logo at www.pbchistory.org
Everglades $250
1 hour professionally supported research in the HSPBC Archives /Library by appointment Company name and logo at www.pbchistory.org
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offers special thanks to our Partners
BDB of Palm Beach County Blackjade Consulting LLC Blue Ocean Capital Botanica Brown Distributing Burkhardt Land Trust Capehart Photography CBIZ / Dennis Goldstein Chamber of Commerce of the Palm Beaches Christian Angle Real Estate City of West Palm Beach Community Foundation of Palm Beach and Martin Counties Corporate Property Services Cultural Council for Palm Beach County Discover the Palm Beaches Eau Resort and Spa Edward Jones Investment | James Smeenge Fernando Wong | Outdoor Design Flagler Realty & Development Florida Power & Light Florida Sugar Cane League Garden of Life Garrison Brothers Distillery General Society of Colonial Wars Gunster Haifa Limestone Hedrick Brothers Construction Island Company Rum
Sponsors and other Partners John C. Cassidy Air Conditioning Keller Williams | Rachel Tessoff Kirchhoff & Associates Architects Lake Worth Drainage District Leeds Custom Design, Ltd. Lesser, Lesser, Landy & Smith Marine Industries Association of Palm Beach County McMow Art Glass Murray & Guari Trial Attorneys Nievera Williams Design Okeechobee Steak House Palm Beach Chamber of Commerce Palm Beach County Bar Association Palm Beach County Bar Association, Inc. North County Sec. Palm Beach County Board of Commissioners Palm Beach Kennel Club Palm Beach Media Group Pioneer Linens PNC Bank Prime Golf Cars Publix REG Architects Related Company Sciame Homes Sean Rush Atelier Searcy Denney Sloan's Ice Cream
Smart Source LLC Society of Colonial Wars in the State of Florida Southern Glazers State of Florida Division of Cultural Affairs Sugar Care Growers Cooperative Sunshine Towers Sysco Table 26 TD Bank The Law Offices of Abigail Beebe, P.A. The Palm Event The Royal (Poinciana Plaza) The Skier Law Firm, P.A. Therma Seal Insulation Systems Tito's Homemade Vodka TMK Farms U.S. Sugar Corporation Very Important Paws Wayne Boynton Wells Fargo Bank West Palm Beach Antique Row Art & Design District West Palm Beach Downtown Development Authority Whitley's Auctioneers Whole Foods Window Gang of Palm Beach
Foundation Partners Addison Hines Charitable Trust Cathleen McFarlane Foundation David Minkin Foundation Frances G. Scaife Foundation Hulitar Family Foundation J. M. Rubin Foundation James M. Cox Foundation Jane Beasley Foundation Leslie & Ronald Y. Schram Philanthropic Fund Marshall E. Rinker, Sr. Foundation
Monica & Douglas Taylor Family Foundation Palm Beach Country Club Foundation Palm Beach County Bar Association, Inc. Pat Moran Family Foundation Patricia Lambrecht Foundation Reynolds Family Foundation Richard S. Johnson Family Foundation Samuel J. & Connie Frankino Charitable Foundation Scaife Family Foundation
Seth Sprague Educational Foundation Sharkey Family Foundation Inc. Society of Colonial Wars in the State of Florida The Loreen Beiswenger Farish Charitable Foundation The Mary Alice Fortin Foundation Timothy D. & Karen V. Burke Charitable Fund
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John Kidder helps with the harvest in the early 1960s. Courtesy Kidder Collection, HSPBC.
New to the Archives
by Lelaina Lemire
Siblings Janis and John Kidder grew up in Belle Glade, where their father, Clarence, was a veterinarian and their mother, Betty, encouraged her children’s interest in 4-H. Janis and John were active club members for eight years and won many awards at the South Florida State Fair for their dairy cattle. Aside from 4-H, the Kidder family helped raise lion cubs at the Everglades Animal Hospital for Lion Country Safari. The 4-H program is an organization that promotes youth involvement in agricultural and STEM fields. During the 1960s, a renewal agricultural change flourished, making 4-H a popular pastime club for children. In the Belle Glade community, where farming was already largely incorporated in everyday life, this program offered a unique way to involve children in the community. Through fun learning activities such as field trips and hands-on experience with animals, 4-Hers were able to enjoy these interactive opportunities while exploring the world around them. The Kidders took lots of photographs and created scrapbooks chronicling their activities in 4-H, scouting, camping, and sporting events. These now provide a glimpse into what life was like when they were growing up in one of Palm Beach County’s western communities during the 1950s and 60s.
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Top (L) John Kidder (left) and friend prepare for cattle show. (R) Janis Kidder is crowned Dairy Princess of the South Florida Fair. Bottom (L) Lion cub at the Kidder home at Christmas. (R) Betty Hill Kidder loved her cattle. Courtesy Kidder Collection, HSPBC.
Lelaina Lemire was an volunteer intern with the Historical Society during a spring semester at Florida Atlantic University, where she learned how to properly catalogue collections, create family trees, and interact with donors. She earned an associate's degree from Palm Beach State College in 2019 and is finishing her B.A. in history at FAU. Hoping to share her love of the environment and history, she is seeking a position where she can combine the two. SPRING 2021 | 43
Sisters Inez and Reba Chalfonte, Keith Vaudeville stars, traveled the world performing dance and acrobatic routines. In the 1930s, they opened the Chalfonte School of Dance in West Palm Beach. Courtesy HSPBC.
Historical Society of Palm Beach County 300 North Dixie Highway, West Palm Beach, FL 33401 P.O. Box 4364, West Palm Beach, FL 33402 Phone: (561) 832-4164 | Fax: (561) 832-7965
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