Swain County

County History: 
Swain
Region: 
Western
Quick Facts
People and Biographies
Notable individuals from nursing history.
  • Lula Owl Gloyne (1891-1985): First Eastern Band Cherokee nurse.
  • Mary Ann Lambert Luff (1916-2013): U.S. Army Nursing Corps nurse who served two years as a 1st LT in France during World War II. After the war she served as a nurse for a veteran's hospital.
  • Sarah Margaret Orr (1916- ): Sarah Margaret Orr, born in 1916, graduated from Fort Sanders Hospital School of Nursing (Knoxville) in 1937.  She was the daughter of Dr. Claudius Vincent Orr, who may have gotten his medical training at Emory.  He worked for a lumber company in Western NC, and his family lived in a train car. When Sarah was a little girl, she rode horses up into the mountains to help her father "doctor" people.  After training, she worked as a nurse until her untimely death from post-op complications in 1962. Sarah married Noble Ferguson and lived out her life in Haywood County. She was one of the founders of an air ambulance service from Swain County up to a hospital in Kentucky.
  • Ernestine Walkingstick (1937-1999): Public health nurse and advocate for victims of domestic violence.
Resources
Additional resources for further research.

Archives

Compiled by: 
Phoebe Pollitt