Address by Ione Leigh Hightower (my mother) to the Miss Central District Student Nurse Contest, January 1959

Mom (lower right)
and the other competitors
from an article in the Indianapolis News

My mother, Ione Leigh Hightower Denoon, passed away on Sunday, April 27, 2014, at the age of 78 years and 9 days. By that time, she had been six years dependent upon the watchfulness of persons exhibiting the qualities she mentions below. Since 2008 she had been a resident of a Clare Bridge memory care residence.

Looking through my collection of memorabilia about her, I found the following essay (and accompanying articles and photos) which won her the Indianapolis title of Miss Student Nurse, back in January 1959. I've reproduced it with some very slight editing. Her closing paragraph seems pertinent to the season of life in which my family finds itself now.

All the world's a stage

And all the men and women merely players;

They have their exits and their entrances;

And one man in his time plays many parts.

                         (As You Like It, Act 2, Scene 2)

Article about the contest, from the Indianapolis Star.

Undoubtedly you have recognized these words by Wm. Shakespeare.

I am one woman, one of the millions of women on this great stage of life, through the field of nursing I hope to be able to make entrances and exits  into many family circles and in this minute period of time with the individual and family I hope to directly or indirectly give a small contribution that can be relayed to the family or community for healthier and happier living.

How can this be done?

An ideal nurse can be a living example of enthusiasm, energy, empathy and eagerness to help, truthfulness, trustworthiness and sincerity of purpose.

She must always display good nursing care based on the scientific principles of nursing, however she must avoid the pitfalls of too much science and too little patient care.

In addition to this she must possess charity and tact.  Charity is to love and to love is to give.  Tact is the art of being able to give and take.  To acquire this art the nurse must possess a sense of humor, patience, unselfishness and sympathy.  A nurse should portray spiritual, mental, emotional and physical health.  Patients look for the cheerfulness in the sincerity of her smile and the sparkle in her eyes.  They watch for the willingness in her response and the graciousness of her manner.  They detect the note of optimism in the words she speaks and the manner in which she speaks them.

Portrait of Miss Student Nurse 1959

She must possess faith and loyalty.  Faith refers to her belief in God and His commandments, loyalty implies trust and devotion supporting the belief in great things.  In a broader sense she displays her confidence in herself, her profession, her family, friends, and the human race.

In the eyes of a patient, who is head of the household, the mother who has left her family in the hands of another or the children from warm and loving home or the ones from a broken or unwanted family, the nurse is the provider of physical and mental care; she is kindness, understanding, strength, love, and the companion on the road back to health.

To the elderly mother or father who are nearing the end of life's journey she is the array of hope and the moment of security as they wait alone for life's final act.

To possess all of these virtues at times seems an insurmountable task, but in some small way, if it be God's plan, I hope to acquire as many of these attributes as possible and take into every patient's life a portion of those virtues.  So that when I have made my final exit from this world's stage I will be remembered for the living role of a nurse and not merely the acting of a part.

Announcement from
a Bowling Green, KY, newspaper.