Auburn School of Nursing celebrates the life of a Centenarian
Reaching 100 years of age has long fascinated people, holding an almost mystical importance as a stamp of a life lived well. Centenarians are regularly honored in newspaper stories, television broadcasts, and family parties. In 2017, Alabama’s Chambers County celebrated the 100th birthday of one of its citizens. Nell Phillips, a resident of Lanett, Alabama, joined a growing population of citizens reaching the milestone. According to a United Nations report, there are more centenarians living today than ever before. The U.N. estimated that there were 343,000 centenarians worldwide in 2012, with the United States having the most: an estimated 80,000.
The extraordinary life of Nell Phillips began in Alabama on September 22, 1917 — an important day for the Phillips family — the day Nell McClendon was born over 102 years ago on a farm in Ridge Grove community, northwest of LaFayette, Alabama. As a centenarian, she has witnessed remarkable and unprecedented technological advances in her lifetime. According to her family, she has lived through the administration of 18 United States presidents, from Woodrow Wilson to Donald Trump.
She has lived through World War I and II, the first “talkie” movie, Alaska and Hawaii becoming states, and the Wright Brothers’ first flight… the list goes on. She has lived in an era when sugar was 6 cents a pound, bread was 7 cents a loaf and milk was 3 cents a gallon.
Nell grew up at a time when Alabama families experienced the first pangs of the Great Depression, and saw a general decline in the agricultural economy. Women saw their roles increase and worked diligently to make ends meet. Many of them got jobs requiring professional training, mostly as teachers and nurses. “Life on the farm was hard,” said Nell. “My dad owned nearly 500 acres of land. My mama used to tell us girls that we had to get away from the farm in order to make a living.”
Two years after her elder sister, Mary Evelyn, started her nursing career at Norwood Hospital in Birmingham, Nell decided to follow suit.
“My sister dissuaded me from enrolling at Norwood. So I joined Hillman (now University of Alabama at Birmingham Hospital) instead, after borrowing money from a local bank to pay for admission,” said Nell. She was unhappy with the environment in the school from the first day when she was assigned to a room well known for an unfortunate incident with a previous occupant. Nell quit nursing school to return to Ridge Grove, in Chambers County, to nurse her ailing mom.
A maternal uncle introduced Nell to Dr. Charles N. Carraway, the founder of Norwood Hospital in Birmingham, who admitted her in the nursing program. Norwood Clinic, later to become Norwood Hospital, was established by Dr. Carraway. The 16-bed hospital, on the corner of 16th Ave and 25th Street, was built in 1917, the year Nell was born!
“The three-year program gave me a good foundation,” she said. “During the day, we would attend classes taught by doctors, nutritionists and lab technicians. At night, we worked with doctors. A hospital attached to the school was where we got our training.
“They would not allow us to take blood pressure (a job typically conceived as a component of the physical examination of patients that only physicians conducted). We wore shoes with cardboard soles. As we had to walk long corridors, our feet would be sore and blistered by evening. When I came off duty, I would soak my feet in a five-gallon bucket of water to relieve my aching feet,” Nell added.
Nearly 80 years ago, Nell started working as a nurse at Auburn’s Drake Infirmary, but before her arrival on the Auburn campus, she received other job offers after her graduation from Norwood. She started with Dr. Nicholas A. Wheeler, at his hospital in LaFayette, for $25 a month. As she was the only nurse in the hospital, she learned to perform minor surgical work with him. She soon moved to Langdale Hospital that paid her $100 a month. At Langdale, she assisted Dr. Coles, a surgeon from Birmingham. “I was his assistant for major surgery. I would often assist him with many things so far beyond me.”
In late 1939, at the urging of her brother who taught at Alabama Polytechnic Institute, Nell left Langdale for Auburn. A new infirmary had been built and needed nurses. It was a two-story brick building that had a small but efficient staff. Dr. Jeptha Wheldon Dennis was the college physician, Ms. Colquitt assisted in the lab and Ms. Bessie Lowe, a registered nurse, was hired in 1938. Nell was hired to assist with nursing duties, when the infirmary was open in the mornings.
Treatments, medicines and technology have evolved since the late 30s. She remembered some instances when she worked at the infirmary, especially when injured football players came for treatment after a ball game. “We made mustard plasters and applied it to their injuries. After heating them in the oven, and we would apply white of eggs on the injuries so that the hot plasters would not blister the skin,” she said. “I once had to sew up a finger for a young man because we couldn’t find a doctor to help him.”
Not too soon after she started working at Auburn, a pharmacist from Lanett took a romantic interest in Nell. Nell McClendon married Edmond Cohen Phillips, the owner of a drugstore in Lanett. Nell quit nursing to help her husband run the drugstore, and managed the business for three years after his death in 1956. She went back to nursing and remained a nurse until her 85th birthday in 2002. “I left when computers were introduced in the hospitals, and it was getting harder for me to work with new technology,” she added.
On a recent visit to tour Auburn’s new nursing building, Nell said she continues to be amazed by how much the nursing profession has transformed since she started nursing school in the 30s. Nell still lives by herself in her house in Lanett, and has watched three generations of her family grow up around her. Her daughter, Jan Moncus, stops by her house to check on her two or three times a day. Her mind as sharp as ever, Nell’s favorite pastime is watching the Judge Judy. To commemorate her centenary milestone, family and friends, and a few elected officials enacted a theme from the show at the Lanett City Courthouse to celebrate Nell Phillips and her service to the community.
