Digital Forsyth Forsyth County, North Carolina

My, how the Nursing field has changed since this time period. My mom, Edna Jean Taylor Williams, is located on the second row, the second nurse from the right. I always remember her many years of service and dedication to the field of nursing. I was always so very proud of her. Mom passed March 6, 2010. Her best friend, Dr. Sadie Webster, paid tribute at my mom’s service. Both women, very classy!

My cousin is in this photo Mrs.Jessie Mae Jeffries-Graves who lives now in Mebane,N.C.She graduated in 1955 and is on the second row.I am her cousin Mrs.Dina K.Jeffries-Thornton and I live in New Mexico presently and graduated in August 1971 from Katie B.The best nursing school that one could ever go to in those days and the best instructors,physician’s,students,housemothers and there was a genuine respect for nurses then and for the health profession as a whole.It has really changed and I feel that when we wore the cap we showed the pride of being nurses and the white uniform with the hosiery and white shoes.That was the day and I am so proud to have come from that era and to have been a part of Katie B. Respectfully, Mrs.Dina Kay Jeffries-Thornton,R.N.

It was very honorable in that era to wear one’s nurses’ hat because a nurse was not considered fully dressed without the nurses’ hat being worn.We were not allowed to wear it in the streets however,only in the hospital setting or in the facility that one happened to be practicing the nursing profession in at any given time.One’s hat stood for your “pride” in the profession of nursing in those days.Those days have long passed it seems in mostly every state.It seems a shame since we all worked so extremely hard to receive it.It was an honor to wear at that time because each school mostly, had a different style of hat which represented their own school of nursing.It was delightful to see the many styles and try to name which school that hat represented.

Another year has passed since I looked at this picture and thought about coming to my Alma Mater nursing school,Kate Bitting Reynolds Memorial Hospital,School of Nursing,better known as affectionately,”DEAR KATIE B”.God bless all the members of the KATIE B community and all their families as well.Have a great 2016 reunion this year as always.Keep the Love of Katie B alive in all our hearts until we meet again.Amen…God bless each and everyone.Mrs.Dina K.J.Thornton,R.N.Class of 1971…Last graduating class from K.B.

Have a great 2016 reunion.God bless each & everyone of you.Safe travels to & from the reunion.

I think I have picked out the incorrect nursing school.I thought this was the Kate Bitting Reynolds School of Nursing nurses graduating at Fries Auditorium.Instead it is the WSSU nurses because I see that the nursing hats are different from Katie B’s hats.What threw me off were the uniforms.They look just like Katie B’s.So it is not my cousin Jessie Mae Jeffries-Graves on the second row.zIt is someone that favors her.? Oh well,that’s life!Nice picture of WSSU nurses as well.Katie B students went to WSSU for a year in conjunction with the 3 year Diploma program set up for us to get our Science courses.Great university as well.Lots of great professors who taught us too.

It is March 23,2017 and another year has passed by so quickly.I have not had the honor and opportunity to get to the Katie “B” reunion to present date but as God is my provider, I will make it there, with God’s Grace, in the near future, I pray.I am still practicing nursing and have always been very proud from whence nursing school I graduated from,affectionately called,our “KATIE B”.Iwould not be a nurse today had it not been for the wonderful instructors and all the wonderful people who made up that institution.I am very honored and grafeful to have come through this nursing school and there is none other that is dear to my heart and better that trained many nurses and radiological technicians as this school has graduated in North Carolina.I feel very proud to be one of those people who can call “Katie B” my school of nurses’ training.Have a wonderful and prosperous reunion July 2017.God bless each and rveryone of you who make it possible every year for those who are fortunate to be apart of the yearly celebration of or Alma Mater.
Mrs.Dina K.J.Thornton,R.N.
Graduate year August 1971