GRACE M. ROOD STORIES Marie Pennington

Pine Mountain Settlement School
Series 09: BIOGRAPHY – Staff
Series 14: MEDICAL Grace M. Rood, Nurse, 1936-1962
Grace Margaret Rood (1897-1988)
GRACE M. ROOD STORIES
Marie Pennington

Hook’s Open House with students holding dolls. mccullough_II_084b

TAGS: Grace M. Rood, Asheville, North Carolina, Harlan County, Kentucky, 1955, Kentucky, history, Marie Pennigton, nursing education, civics lessons, dolls, taking responsibility,

GRACE M. ROOD STORIES Marie Pennington

We had changed from our boarding school to an elementary community school, so we no longer had meals to serve to students, or the usual cleaning, etc,, We were looking for help from folks in the community, and Marie Pennington had applied.

I remembered her. Now she was 18 years old.

I had met her several years before, when she had been helped into our clinic by her grandmother at 6:00 AM. Marie, then about 10 years old, had recently had a tooth extracted at Harlan, 20 miles over a mountain road. The cavity had been seeping a little blood ever since, and her family had waited until daylight to bring her in. they had carried her three miles to the road and then had gotten a ride into the hospital. it did not look too serious to me, and I packed the cavity with gauze.

When the doctor arrived, he did not agree with me at all. ” Nurse, a little girl like this can’t afford to lose any blood. You should have sent for me immediately.” I was quite chagrined, and as Marie was waiting for another check and rest before returning home, I went to our store room for used clothing; Here I found a very pretty doll, not new, but with pretty hair and a new cotton dress. A little sweet smile rewarded me as Marie clasped it in her arms.

Ten or 15 years later, I was to see the same doll, with a ribbon around its neck, fastened by a nail beside the fireplace in her first home after her marriage.. When I ask her if she had ever played with the doll, she said, ” No, Grandma had said, ‘ let’s put a nail in the wall by the fireplace and put up the pretty doll where everyone can see it, and it won’t get dirty.”

Now, years later, we met Marie again and took her on to work for us. her grandmother had brought her up well. And the appreciation of order and cleanliness. . And also in honesty.

One day, Marie had come home from a neighbour’s where she had been playing with their children. Grandma noticed a small play car in Marie’s pocket. Marie claimed that one of the small boys had given it to her. Grandma suggested to Marie that she had better take it back before the little boy got in trouble with his mother for giving it away. Marie had to confess that she had taken it.

” You can take it right back!” reproved the grandmother.

” It’s too far, it’s getting dark.”

But Grandma persisted, and then offered to go along.

“She didn’t make me take it to the house; She let me put it on the fence post. But believe me, I’ve never taken anything that belonged to someone else since then.”

After working for us [Pine Mountain Settlement School] for several years, she married a fine young man who worked regularly in a lumber yard. I visited her in a fine little home, with a large garden, and Grandma Spradlin! I was present at the delivery of two of her three children. When I visited in the area in the summer of 1983 [following Rood’s retirement] she drove 30 miles to see me..

Marie, and her little doll-on-the-wall, are among my loving memories.

END

GRACE M. ROOD CORRESPONDENCE 1940
GRACE ROOD CORRESPONDENCE 1962

GRACE ROOD Photograph Album 1
GRACE ROOD Photograph Album 2

GRACE M. ROOD Video Interview [pending]

PINE MOUNTAIN SETTLEMENT SCHOOL COLLECTIONS

"Over 100 years enriching lives and connecting people through Appalachian place-based education for all ages."

GRACE M. ROOD STORIES Marie Pennington

GRACE M. ROOD STORIES Marie Pennington