howeenterprise.com
Monday, June 19, 2017
Page #10
Texas History Minute hospital opened with much fanfare in 1929. Cook died in 1932, leaving most of her estate to the facility. In 1951, the W. I. Cook Foundation and the Tom B. Owens Foundation made a substantial donation to Fort Worth Children’s Hospital to help it build a new facility. As a polio epidemic swept through the area, both Cook Hospital and Fort Worth Children’s were overwhelmed. In 1952, Cook Hospital decided to Dr. Ken Bridges expand to 72 beds and focus solely on children as Cook Children’s Dr. Bridges is a Texas native, writer, and history professor. He Hospital and added rehabilitation equipment for polio patients. can be reached at drkenbridges@gmail.com. By 1961, Fort Worth Children’s Hospital moved away from its original location near Texas “He who saves a life saves the Christian University to its present world,” is an old Hebrew proverb. location across the street from And that is especially true for Harris Methodist Hospital, which grieving parents who have watched had opened in 1930. In the their children at the edge of death meantime, both Cook Children’s returned to full health and their and Fort Worth Children’s worked world made whole again. All it closely together. By 1980, takes is for one person willing to officials at both hospitals decided do the right thing. The story of they could best serve their patients Cook Children’s Hospital in Fort by combining resources and Worth is how two people without merging into one large hospital. A any medical training worked to newly-formed board facilitated create a hospital respected around this merger, which was completed the globe and has saved countless in 1985. lives since. The hospitals were consolidated at While Texas had a number of the Fort Worth Children’s Hospital hospitals established by the campus and construction on a beginning of the twentieth century, modern, expanded facility for what there were few dedicated solely to was now Cook-Fort Worth children’s medicine. Ida L. Turner Children’s Hospital began in had completed a respected tenure 1987. The 183-bed expansion was as a postmaster, a prestigious completed in 1989, which included position for a woman at the time, a skybridge connecting it to Harris and wanted to do still more for the Methodist Hospital and eventually community. Wanting to make up an interior décor that resembled a for serious deficiencies in medical castle to help put children more at care for newborns, she organized ease. the 30-bed Fort Worth Free Baby Hospital in March 1918. Turner The name eventually became made sure that the hospital would Cook Children’s Hospital. Since provide care for anyone, regardless 2001, the hospital has invested of circumstances and regardless of more than $100 million in new ability to pay. All materials and facilities, expanded care, and the supplies were donated through latest equipment. The hospital Turner’s efforts. By 1922, the now has 443 beds at its main hospital was expanded as Fort campus in Fort Worth and has Worth Children’s Hospital, with a expanded to include an outpatient new floor added and services hospital in neighboring Hurst extended to older children. In spite which opened in 2004. The of the success of the hospital, it system employs more than 200 struggled financially. doctors. The staff routinely deals with situations from injuries to At the same time, Missouri Matilda psychological conditions to cancer Cook was looking for a proper way treatment to premature births and to honor her late husband and complications from childbirth. daughter. William I. Cook had The Teddy Bear Transport team been a prominent rancher near includes a staff of 62, two planes, Albany, not far from Abilene. five ambulances, and a helicopter Their daughter Jessie died in 1901, to transport the most critical while the elder Cook died in 1923 patients from hundreds of miles after a fortune in oil was away. A system of urgent care subsequently found at the ranch. clinics and specialty clinics are His widowed wife gave $1 million now strung across North Texas to build an ornate, 55-bed hospital and are as far away as Midland in Fort Worth, christened W. I. and San Angelo. The hospital Cook Memorial Hospital. The new
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works with doctors and patients in other nations and has brought in patients from the far corners of the world. Disease and suffering are not conditions that must necessarily haunt childhood. The hospital begun by two people trying to alleviate the pain and misery of others has made tremendous strides in ending that affliction, most certainly for the thousands of young patients treated there for its century
of existence. For the doctors, nurses, and technicians at Cook Children’s, the healing mission has been advanced by providing the most cutting-edge research and technology. For the children arriving as patients and their parents, it has provided hope. Personal note: In 2002, the doctors and nurses of Cook Children’s Hospital saved the life of the author’s newborn son, Kaleb.
HHS Class of 1992 to hold 25year student and teacher reunion July 8 in downtown Howe Members of the Howe High School Class of 1992 announced over the weekend that they will hold a reunion on July 8 at 2 pm at the Howe Development Alliance in Downtown Howe. They are welcoming not only any former classmates that ever were along for the journey at any point, but also any teacher that ever taught the class. Early confirmations of teachers and coaches that will be on-hand are Joey and Vicki McQueen, Janie Finney, Bettye Mullins, and Donna Jarma with hopes of many more to attend.
Most likely to receive the "Furthest Traveled Award" will be Trong Lieu who currently lives in Pennsylvania and has scheduled a flight. There is a Facebook Event page set up as in hopes of no one being left out. This is not a reunion of graduates of the class; it is a reunion of classmates from any time from 1980-1992. For more information, please contact Pam Lankford Kirby or Monte Walker.
