registered nurse

In memoriam: Roxanna Kirby Exum.

Wilson Daily Times, 17 December 2009.

Roxanna Kirby Exum was a nurse at Mercy Hospital from the early 1940s until it closed in 1964.

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In the 1930 census of Springhill township, Wilson County: on property owned and valued at $6000, farmer William Kirby, 45; wife Nannie, 41; and children James D., 19, Freeda M., 20, Elizabeth, 18, Sarah, 15, Roxana E., 13, William H., 11, Queene E., 9, Hobby L., 8, Isaac H., 5, Nettie, 2, and Willie K., 2 month.

In the 1940 census of Springhill township, Wilson County: farmer William Kirby, 55; wife Nannie, 52; children Hobby Lee, 17, Havey Isa, 15, Nettie, 13, Willie K., 13, and Roxia A., 22; niece Lucille Shaw, 18; and lodger Jr. Barnes, 4.

Per their marriage license, Levell Exum and Roxanna Eva Kirby, both 25, were married 7 March 1943 in Johnston County, N.C. Primitive Baptist minister David Bynum lived near Lucama, in Wilson County, however, as did Mamie B. Williamson and David Bynum Jr.

Whitehead plays on Saint Philip’s softball team.

Journal and Guide (Norfolk, Va.), 14 July 1945.

Gertrude Whitehead, second from left on the top row, played softball for the Saint Philip Hospital nursing school team in Richmond, Virginia.

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In the 1930 census of Wilson township, Wilson County: on Highway 91, owned and valued at $2500, oil mill contractor Henry Whitehead, 53; wife Victoria, 43, seamstress; and children Katherine, 19, Odell, 17, James, 15, Grace, 13, Rosalyn, 11, Herbert, 9, Gertrude, 6, Mable, 4, and Victoria, 2.

In the 1940 census of Wilson township, Wilson County: widow Victoria Whitehead, 52, sewing; children James, 25, apprentice carpenter; Rosaline, 21; Herbert, 20, tobacco company floor hand; Gertrude, 16, Mabel, 14, and Victoria E., 12; and nieces Elizabeth Brodie, 32, public school teacher, and [actually, granddaughter] Joan Bynum, 6.

In the 1950 census of Richmond, Virginia: at 2109 Bainbridge Street, widow Lillian G. Smithea, 48; brother Robert L. Glenn, 36; and lodger Gertrude E. Whitehead, 25, registered nurse-public health.

A tribute to Henrietta Foster Mebane.

Journal and Guide (Norfolk, Va.), 1 July 1950.

Add the highly-accomplished Henrietta Foster Mebane to the top of the list of early twentieth-century Black registered nurses in Wilson.

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In the 1910 census of Wilson, Wilson County: Walter Foster, 34, fireman at wagon factory; wife Nettie, 39; and children Henry E., 8, and Walter A., 5; plus boarder Arthur Broady, 22, laborer.

In the 1920 census of Wilson, Wilson County: at 707 Vance Street, Walter Foster, 46, fireman at wagon company; wife Rosa, 34; children Heneretta, 18, Carl, 6, and Naomi, 4; and sister-in-law Etta Parker, 32, a school teacher.

In the 1930 census of Wilson, Wilson County: at 308 North Hadley Street, Mary Shaw, 49, servant; adopted daughter Grace V. Shaw, 4; and lodger Henretta Foster, 28, trained nurse at hospital.

Walter Mebane was born and died 6 August 1931 in Rocky Mount, North Carolina. Per his death certificate, he was the son of John A. Mebane of Rocky Mount and Henrietta Foster of Wilson and was buried in Nash County, N.C.

In the 1940 census of Tarboro, Edgecombe County, N.C.: church minister John A. Mebane, 54; wife Henrietta, 38, registered nurse; and children William A., 6, and Florence, 5.

Grace Mebane died 7 February 1940 in Tarboro, Edgecombe County, N.C. Per her death certificate, she was born 11 April 1926 in Petersburg, Virginia, to John Mebane of Bertie County, N.C., and Henrietta Foster of Wilson County, and was buried in Wilson [probably in her grandparents’ plot in Odd Fellows Cemetery.]

In the 1950 census of Tarboro, Edgecombe County, N.C.: painter John A. Mebane, 64; wife Heneretta A., 48; public health nurse; and daughter Florence Y., 14.

Henrietta Alline Foster Mebane died 2 June 1950 at her home at 504 Bradley Avenue, Tarboro. Per her death certificate, she was born 24 August 1901 to Walter Foster and Nettie Young; was married to John A. Mebane; worked as a nurse; and was buried in Roundtree Cemetery “near Wilson, N.C.” [Henrietta Mebane’s grave likely lay near those of her parents near the old gates into Rountree. Her remains were later removed to Rest Haven Cemetery, where she was reinterred alongside her husband.]

Henrietta Alline Foster Mebane (1901-1950).

Photo courtesy of Ancestry.com user mebane714.

Nurse Colvert assumes supervisory position.

Journal and Guide (Norfolk, Va.), 2 October 1948.

Before she was visiting nurse for Metropolitan Life, Henrietta Colvert was a staff nurse at Wilson Hospital and Tubercular Home/Mercy Hospital and lived in Wilson for fifteen or more years. (She was also my mother‘s maternal great-aunt, and thus the first of the Colvert family to settle here.)

Nurse Mabel Weaver Ellis.

My father told me:

“She was — they called her ‘the shot lady.’ [Laughs.] They used to come to school, and you had to line up. And you talking ‘bout hollering and screaming. [Laughs.] And then you’d line up to take your shot. And she’d come in there, had on her — I remember she had on a blue cape, with a whatchacallem … cap. One of them nurse’s caps. I think it was red and blue. And had on heeled shoes. A little heel. Clunky-heeled shoes and all. And she had a black bag that she brought all her stuff in. And you’d line up to get shots. I mean it was a mess. They’d be holding folk, and they’d be hollering and screaming and ….  And she’d be coming. Mable Ellis. Nurse Ellis, the Shot Lady.” 

Wilson Daily Times, 12 September 1964.

Wilson Daily Times, 1 October 1964.

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In the 1910 census of Wilson township, Wilson County: oil mill laborer Nathan Weaver, 35; wife Sallie, 30; and children Doretha, 9, Mable, 7, Louis, 2, and Sallie, 4 months.

On 28 September 1927, George W. Ellis, 52, of Wilson, married Mable Weaver, 26, of Wilson in Wilson. Missionary Baptist minister B.F. Jordan preformed the ceremony in the presence of James Whitfield, Robert Haskins and Rosa Arrington.

In the 1930 census of Wilson, Wilson County: at 1101 Atlantic Street, owned and valued at $2500, Geo. W. Ellis, 56, public school janitor; wife Mabel, 28, grocery store proprietor; and children Elizabeth, 13, and Montie, 16.

Per this history of the organization, in 1934 Mabel W. Ellis joined North Carolina’s chapter of the National Association of Colored Graduate Nurses. I have not been able to determine where she received her nursing training, but Raleigh’s Saint Agnes Hospital or Durham’s Lincoln Hospital.

In the 1940 census of Wilson, Wilson County: at 1101 Atlantic Street, owned and valued at $1400, George Ellis, 65, school carpenter; wife Mabel, 38, health department nurse; and daughter Elizabeth, 23.

George Washington Ellis died 7 September 1943 at Mercy Hospital, Wilson. Per his death certificate, he was born 29 February 1875 in Wilson County to Jacob Ellis and Millie Forbs; lived at 1101 Atlantic Street; was a carpenter; and was buried in Rountree Cemetery.

Mable Weaver Ellis died in Wilson on 8 February 1995.

Interview with R.C. Henderson by Lisa Y. Henderson, January 1995, all rights reserved.

Registered nurses.

Early African American Registered Nurses in NC lists all known African-American nurses in the state to 1935, including two in Wilson:

(The number presumably refers to the nurse’s license and the date to the date she was certified or registered to practice.)

Ada Artis died 31 December 1950 at her home at 611 East Green Street. Per her death certificate, she was born 18 June 1891 in Brooks County, Georgia, to William Adams and Elizabeth Troup; was married [to Columbus E. Artis]; and worked as a “R.N. nurse.” Katie Creigh of Waycross, Georgia, was informant, and her husband’s firm handled her burial.

Henrietta Colvert was from Statesville, North Carolina, and trained at Raleigh’s Saint Agnes Hospital prior to Good Samaritan, a large African-American hospital in Charlotte.

Many thanks to Renate Yarbrough Sanders for bringing this article to my attention.