Portsmouth, Southampton County, Virginia, USA

The Polio Drive at O'Neil's Portrait Salon provided the color portrait below. I'm glad Mom was able to keep it after the fundraiser. It's a beautiful image of her captured in time. Although her eyes were brown, the tinted color is blue. Perhaps an oversight, or the studio thought blue would brighten her eyes and display better in the window. 

I always thought my mother could have been a hand and face model. If she were an actress, she would have been cast as the "girl next door" type, the good friend, the supportive sister roles.

FISHERVILLE 1953

Following WWII, it was discovered that the Woodrow Wilson General Hospital, located in Fishersville, was to be declared surplus. The War Assets Administration agreed to transfer the property to the state. It was first offered to the Department of Health for a hospital for tuberculars with an adjoining section devoted to rehabilitation; this department decided the cost of reconditioning would be prohibitive. Governor Tuck, still interested in the property being acquired by the state, asked how it could be used for educational and rehabilitation purposes. A  formal proposal was made which suggested the following services to be provided: vocational counseling and guidance, therapy treatment under medical supervision, training opportunities, a sheltered workshop, training in the use of prosthetic appliances, and speech training and psychiatric treatment in cooperation with the University of Virginia Medical Department.

A representative from the Augusta County School Board was also in Richmond to request the use of part of the Woodrow Wilson General Hospital for a public school. Soon a plan was presented for the building to be divided into three sections; one for the rehabilitation center, one for a vocational school and one for a secondary school. This plan was submitted to the War Assets Administration after which a delay ensued. Unable to understand the reason for this delay, Mr. W. Kuhn Barnett from the professional staff traveled to Washington to discover that this office had “never heard of such a thing as a rehabilitation center.” He convinced the federal medical representative in an hour’s time that the idea was a worthy one.

Above: Nell in Fisherville taking an 18-month course in secretarial skills. In particular she was proficient at shorthand and the dictaphone. Office work was  one of the few occupations available to women in the early 1950s.   Teacher, nurse, clerk, or secretary were about the only choices in the workplace for women until the 1970s.