Interview with Helen E. Browne, March 26, 1979

Partial Transcript: This is an interview with Helen Edith Browne for the Oral History Project Frontier Nursing Service by Carol Crowe-Carraco...

Segment Synopsis: Helen "Brownie" Browne is introduced. She talks about her childhood and early education in Suffolk, England. She talks about convincing her father to allow her to become a nurse, and talks about going to London to attend St. Bartholomew's Hospital School of Nursing.

Keywords: Experience; Fathers; Governesses; London (England); Private schools; Rural areas; Saint Bartholomew's Hospital School of Nursing; Secretary; Suffolk (England); Training

Subjects: Education; Families.; Medical education; Midwives; Nurses; Nursing--Study and teaching; Occupations.

Partial Transcript: When did you decide upon midwifery?

Segment Synopsis: Browne talks about her training as a surgical nurse before deciding to become a midwife. She talks in detail about her training at the British Hospital for Mothers and Babies, including her instructors and the heads of the school, her training as a midwife, and some of the births she attended. She discusses her living conditions, the religious aspects of the school, and her midwifery exam.

Keywords: Alice Gregory; Breastfeeding; British Hospital for Mothers and Babies; British Mothers and Babies; Buildings; C-sections; Caesarian sections; Central Hall; Chapel; Church services; Clinical midwife; Complications; Delivery; Doctors; Dr. Bolton; Dr. Eileen Wise; Dr. Harold Waller; Dr. Harry Wise; Episcopalian; Fasting; Forceps; Homebirths; House of the Star; Leah Neild; Lectures; Lelia Parnell; Living quarters; London (England); Mary Breckinridge; Maud Cashmore; Midwifery examinations; Operating rooms; Oral exams; Personality; Postpartum care; Religious conversion; Sir Harold Gillis; Sister Adeline; Surgery; Surgical nurses; Wards; Written exams

Subjects: Breckinridge, Mary, 1881-1965; Childbirth; Health facilities.; Maternal health services.; Medical care; Medical education; Midwifery; Midwives; Nurses; Nursing; Nursing--Study and teaching; Religion

Partial Transcript: Did you hear about the Frontier Nursing Service at British Mothers and Babies?

Segment Synopsis: Browne talks about how she learned of the Frontier Nursing Service while working as a private midwife. She talks about her difficulty immigrating to the United States, and her long journey to Kentucky. She talks about her impressions of the area, the FNS staff, and the local people.

Keywords: Agnes Lewis; Big House; Breastfeeding; Buses; Dorothy Buck ("Bucket"); Eyesight; Hazard (Ky.); Horses; Hyden (Ky.); Impressions; Kentucky; Lafayette Hotel; Lexington (Ky.); Local people; Mary Breckinridge; Maud Cashmore; New York; Physical exams; Postpartum care; Private midwifery; Red Bird Center; Rivers; Sinusitis; Tea; Trains; Traveling; Wendover (Ky.)

Subjects: Breckinridge, Mary, 1881-1965; Emigration and immigration.; Frontier Nursing Service, Inc.; Immigrants--Kentucky; Midwifery; Rural conditions; Transportation

Partial Transcript: So you came in then as a lot of the other British nurses were about to get ready to go home, huh?

Segment Synopsis: Browne talks about arriving around the time that many British nurses were leaving the FNS to serve during World War II. She talks about a trip she took to Vancouver. She talks about how the FNS continued to operate during WWII.

Keywords: British nurses; Bull Creek (Ky.); Couriers; Delivery; Flat Creek (Ky.); Frontier Graduate School of Midwifery; Hospital midwife; Hyden (Ky.); Leaving; Lectures; Mary Breckinridge; Mothers; Salary; Trains; Vacations; Vancouver (Canada)

Subjects: Breckinridge, Mary, 1881-1965; Childbirth; Frontier Nursing Service, Inc.; Maternal health services.; Medical care--Appalachian Region; Midwifery--Appalachian Region; Midwives--Appalachian Region; Nurses; Nursing; Rural health services; Volunteers; World War, 1939-1945--Women

Partial Transcript: You came out to Wendover then about 1947?

Segment Synopsis: Browne talks about some of the leaders of the FNS over the years, including some of the people chosen to be Mary Breckinridge's successors, Dorothy Buck and herself among them. She talks about her duties as the associate director, including writing a rejection letter to a Japanese-American nurse who applied to the FNS shortly after World War II. She talks about the FNS committees and board of directors.

Keywords: Anne MacKinnon ("Mac"); Associate directors; Board of directors; Dorothy Buck ("Bucket"); Duties; Executive committees; Hospital superintendents; Hyden Committee; Japanese Americans; Mary Breckinridge; Meetings; Post-World War II; Rejection letters; Responsibilities; Secretary; Successors; Wendover (Ky.)

Subjects: Breckinridge, Mary, 1881-1965; Frontier Nursing Service, Inc.; Medical centers--Administration

Partial Transcript: As you got to know Mrs. Breckinridge after you came here, did she ever talk to you about the early days of the Service?

Segment Synopsis: Browne talks about what she knows of the beginning of the FNS, including their funding and conflict with government agencies. She talks about Mary Breckinridge's husbands, her views on race relations, and why she did not participate in the television program "This is Your Life."

Keywords: "This is Your Life"; Agnes Lewis; Alice Lloyd; Betty Lester; Child Hygiene Association; Conflicts; Dr. Annie Veech; Dr. Beasley; Dr. Loganstein; Dr. McCormick; Funding; Hazel Corbin; Henry Ruffner Morrison; Husbands; Kentucky State Board of Health; Mary Breckinridge; Memories; Name changes; Richard Thompson; Slaves

Subjects: Breckinridge, Mary, 1881-1965; Divorce.; Families.; Frontier Nursing Service, Inc.; Race relations--Kentucky; Racism--Kentucky; Slavery

Partial Transcript: You know, there, there are really so many things I want to ask you and I, and I know you're getting awfully tired of, of this sort of thing.

Segment Synopsis: Browne talks about becoming Mary Breckinridge's successor and discusses her complicated relationship with Mrs. Breckinridge. She talks about Mrs. Breckinridge's health issues and the toll writing her autobiography, "Wide Neighborhoods" took on her life. She talks in detail about Mrs. Breckinridge's writing process.

Keywords: "Wide Neighborhoods"; Age; Agnes Lewis; Autobiographies; Awareness; Betty Lester; Books; Devil's advocate; Editing; Friends; Health issues; Involvement; Mary Breckinridge; Morning conferences; Names; Relationships; Reviewing; Successors; Writing

Subjects: Authors.; Authorship.; Breckinridge, Mary, 1881-1965; Frontier Nursing Service, Inc.; Manuscript preparation (Authorship); Medical centers--Administration

Partial Transcript: Brownie in, in going through so much of the things that I have gone through it seems to me that there's a lull in the fifties.

Segment Synopsis: Browne talks about Breckinridge's stance on government funding, her attitude regarding people who disagreed with her or did not follow her policies, and discusses her resistance to change.

Keywords: Bridges; Changes; Confluence (Ky.); Cosmopolitan Club; Criticism; Dr. Beasley; Dr. Livingood; Fired; Government funding; Great Depression; Lull; Mary Breckinridge; Morale; Opposition; Progress; Protests; Salary; Staff; Stagnant; State health commissioners

Subjects: Breckinridge, Mary, 1881-1965; Depressions--1929--Kentucky; Frontier Nursing Service, Inc.; Medical centers--Administration; Rural conditions

Partial Transcript: In the late 1940s, around 1948, the Service seems to--Mrs. Breckinridge seems to, briefly at least, take a, a--have an idea of a different direction for the Service...

Segment Synopsis: Browne discusses Mary Breckinridge's attempts to open a clinic for a mining company. She talks about Mrs. Breckinridge's fundraising tactics, mainly public speaking and storytelling, which some people objected to.

Keywords: Coal operators; Donations; Executive committees; Fundraising; Marion Belknap; Mary Breckinridge; Max Smith; Meetings; Mining companies; New York; Philanthropy; Physicals; Public speaking; Speeches; Storytelling

Subjects: Breckinridge, Mary, 1881-1965; Frontier Nursing Service, Inc.; Fund raising; Philanthropists.; Rural conditions

Partial Transcript: Would you say that Mary Breckinridge is a very--or was a very complex woman? A woman of contrast?

Segment Synopsis: Browne describes Mary Breckinridge's personality and temperament, her former habit of swearing, her smoking habit, and says that she knowingly gave up the comforts of life when she began the FNS. She describes Mrs. Breckinridge's appearance, and says that Breckinridge often encouraged her to "use her sex appeal" in negotiations for the FNS.

Keywords: Appearance; Aristocratic; Chores; Cleaning; Clifton Rodes Breckinridge; Clothing; Comforts; Connections; Contacts; Divorce; Fathers; Hands; Impatient; Maids; Marriage; Mary Breckinridge; Men; Personality; Profanity; Sex appeal; Smoking; Swearing; Temperament

Subjects: Breckinridge, Mary, 1881-1965; Country life; Families.; Frontier Nursing Service, Inc.; Rural conditions

Partial Transcript: Brownie, Elizabeth Perkins came in here in 1926 and made that "Trail of the Pioneer"--

Segment Synopsis: Browne talks about several articles and news pieces that were written on the FNS and why Mary Breckinridge was cautious about allowing outsiders to write about the organization. She specifically discusses the occasion when Life Magazine wrote an article on the FNS but was barred from attending a meeting of the American Association of Nurse Midwives in order to keep secret that the organization had African American members. She briefly discusses Sir Leslie MacKenzie's visit to the FNS. She discusses Mary Breckinridge's attitude regarding her death. The interview is concluded.

Keywords: "The Trail of the Pioneer"; American Association of Nurse Midwives; British ambassadors; Death; Donations; Elizabeth Perkins; Health; Helping; Leslie County (Ky.); Leukemia; Life Magazine; Mary Breckinridge; Photographers; Sir Leslie MacKenzie; Tired

Subjects: African Americans--Segregation; African Americans--Social conditions.; Breckinridge, Mary, 1881-1965; Frontier Nursing Service, Inc.; Integration; Journalism.; Publicity.; Race relations--Kentucky