Blog 112: From Mopping to Nursing: Meet Jessie Maye Herron

By Vernon M. Herron

On Thursday 18 October 2012, the Winston Salem State University (WSSU) at Winston Salem, NC will conduct a Stroll Down Memory Lane Banquet in McNeil Hall, commemorating the 55th Anniversary of its first nursing class of 1957. The honorees include:

     Shirley Caldwell Blanton     Betty Brown Hines        Edna Taylor Williams

            Mary Scott Isom                   Bertha Mae Johnson     Constance C. Lipscomb

            Barbara Hope Austin           Bernice Donnell Davis   Ylene W. Veazie

            Jessie Maye Herron             Sadie Brown Webster   Jessie Little Campbell

Of the class population of twelve, four are deceased, seven are alive and one is unaccounted for. Yet, each will be honored with a brief biographical sketch of her life with a listing of five achievements since graduation 55 years ago.

The five achievements listed for Jessie include:
– She was the great granddaughter of Richard and Minerva Herron who constituted the first known structured African American Herron family in the Piedmont region of North Carolina in 1870.
– She pursued training in Nurse Education ten years after finishing high school.
– She was the Founder and President of the Nurses’ Guild of Charlotte’s Ebenezer Baptist Church.
– She was a member of the Senior Drummer and Percussion Ensemble of Charlotte’s Ebenezer Church.
– She was a philanthropist to students desirous of an education in nursing.

This saga began in the 40’s. After finishing high school in 1943, Jessie Maye worked in the Maintenance Department of the Charlotte Memorial Hospital as a maid mopping floors as one of her many duties. After this writer had finished college in 1951 and was employed in his first job, his sister Jessie declared to the family that she was tired of reporting to a job at 6 a.m. and mopping floors daily.

We all urged her to take training in some desired field which would lead to better working conditions and salary. This she did and away Jessie went to Winston- Salem State University, enrolling in the school’s first class for nurses. During the first year, Jessie suffered from loneliness and fatigue, crying and writing, “I want to come home, and I am lonely.” I volunteered to write the family response saying, “I give you no sympathy. Do you want to mop floors the rest of your life? Just stay there, tough it out and learn all you can for a Bachelor of Science degree. You won’t regret the hard study. It will pay dividends in days to come.”

Sister took my advice and graduated in the first class for nurses from WSSU with a Bachelor of Science Degree in Nursing.  She was experienced in the field. She held positions in Washington, DC at George Washington Hospital and at Mercy Hospital in Charlotte, NC. She retired from Carolina Medical Center formerly known as (Charlotte Memorial Hospital) in Charlotte in 1988 after twenty-two years  n  of service as a trained nurse, where she once mopped floors.

Jessie conceived her profession as a ministry and recited the following prayer in her daily walk.

A Nurse’s Prayer

O My God, I am about to begin today’s work.

Teach me to receive the sick in Thy name.

Give to my effort, success, sweet Jesus,

For Thy glory and Thy holy name.

It is Thy work, without Thee, I cannot succeed.

Grant that the sick placed in my care,

may be abundantly blessed and not one of them

lost because of anything lacking in me.

Help thou me, to overcome every temporal weakness

and strengthen me for whatever may enable me to

bring the sunshine of joy to the lives that

are gathered around me day by day.

Make me beautiful within for the sake of the

sick ones and those lives which will

be influenced by them.  A-men

Herron Speaks blog is delighted to tell the Jessie Maye Herron story. Other family members who followed Jessie in nurse training at WSSU include two nieces, Clara Estell Hampton of the 1960 class and Betty Ann Davis of the 1961 class. Clara Estell Hampton married Jessie Herron’s nephew, William U. Harris also a graduate of WSSU’s class of 1958. Nurse Betty Davis is now a Mrs. Burney and is retired. Yet, another niece, Frenshetta Louise Herron followed Jessie in nurse training at another school, namely Lankenau Hospital School of Nursing of Philadelphia, PA. She finished with the class of 1992.

Other family members who have been mentioned in previous blogs include:

15-Nephew Dr. William Harris

65-Mama Mamie

66-Mama Mamie

76-Great grandparents

83-Aunt Leila

103-Niece Gaynelle

108-Mama Mamie