Evidently Mom (Florence Wright) got together with her friends from nursing school on July 11, 1938. Here they are in front of the Wright house at 406 N Geary St., Albany.
Much had happened since these three graduated from nursing school seven years before this.
When they first graduated, they got an apartment together in Portland and thought they would make a lot of money doing “special duty” nursing. Alas, it was the depths of the Depression, so they couldn’t even make enough to pay rent on the apartment.
Mom came back to Tallman and lived with her parents. She eventually got on at Albany General Hospital and worked as a nurse there until sometime in 1934 when the birth of her first child (Donna) was approaching. Of course in July 1933 she had married Dad (Lloyd Wright). Two more daughters after Donna had been born by the time this photo was taken (Clara and Kathryn). In fact, Kathryn had been born just a month before this.
Dorothy worked as a public health nurse in Marion County from 1934 to 1938). Possibly she worked in a similar position in Portland before that. When this photo was taken, she was about to move to Ketchikan, Alaska to work for the territorial department of health there. Possibly the impetus for these three to get together at this time was that Dorothy would be so far away. Dorothy had had a steady boyfriend in George Weeks for at least five years by this time. (George had been teaching in Ketchikan for three years by the time this photo was taken, so that might have been the motivation for Dorothy’s getting a job there.) They would be engaged the year after this (June 1939), then married that September.
I know much less about what Shirley was doing in this period. She was married to Edward Bruce Elliott by the time this photo was taken, but I don’t know exactly when they were married—sometime after May 1936. According to census data, Bruce had been living in Portland since at least 1930. In 1935 Shirley was living in Columbia County (presumably working as a nurse of some kind, but I don’t know any details). In May 1936 Shirley received a certificate in public health nursing from University of Oregon. Earlier that year she had been working as a school health nurse at Eastern Oregon Normal School in La Grande. By 1939 (possibly even at the time this photo was taken) Shirley and Bruce were living in Vancouver, Washington and Shirley was a public school nurse.
As has been mentioned before in posts on this blog, these three maintained their friendship through the rest of their lives, even when separated by hundreds or thousands of miles. Quite an extraordinary friendship.
Again….thanks for putting all these “pieces” together, Lloyd. Yes, the friendship of these 3 is interesting because they were each one quite different from each other in personality. Friendships made at time of life often do have special significance!
Do we have as many pictures or as much information about Clara File (sp?)? Any way, yes, good picture of those 3 friends!
So far, I have not come across any photos of Clara Feil (I think that’s how it’s spelled).
Thank you for the photo and information. Shirley Briggs was my muched loved grandmother. Ive recently discovered several folders of mementos my mother had saved from grandma when clearing out grandma’s room at our house on her passing. The folders include photos and letters that grandma had saved over the years. I will look for any from Florence Wright or Dorothy Holmes as well as ask my mother what she knows about those friendships. I didn’t know grandma worked for a spell in La Grande. She grew up on a farm in Yankton.