Pine Mountain Settlement School
Series 09: Biography – Staff/Personnel
Series 14: Medical, Health and Hygiene
Grace M. Rood (1897-1988): Nurse & Superintendent of the Infirmary 1936 – 1962

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TAGS: Grace M. Rood Correspondence, Grace M. Rood, The Kentucky Birth Control League, Southern Conference, Kentucky Conference on Tomorrow’s Children, Glyn Morris, Barry Bingham, President of The Courier-Journal/Louisville TImes, Florence S. Goodwin, Jean B. Tachau, Birth Control Federation ofAmerica, film “The Fight for Life”, Pere Lorenz, Dr. John W. Scott, Kentucky State Medical Society, “Child Health Problems in Eastern Kentucky,” Dr. John W. Scott, President of Kentucky State Medical Society. 

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GRACE M. ROOD 1940 Correspondence

The following correspondence includes material that demonstrates the persistence of the Pine MOuntain staff to keep pace with the developing field of rural medicine. Grace Rood, an inspiration to all who knew her, Grace Rood had a remarkable dedication to the improvement of the community in which she spent so many years of her life. Her efforts are still felt today in so many of the families in the Pine Mountain valley and beyond.

In November of 1939 the Conference on “To-morrow’s Children” in Atlanta, GA, inspired many and resulted in a Kentucky Conference on the same theme. Barry Bingham, of the Louisville Courier Journal, and a member of the Pine Mountain Board of Trustees, served as Chairman of the Kentucky efforts. He brought together thinking people from throughout Kentucky. Grace Rood was one of those invited to lead a discussion group based on “The Mountain Family in Perspective, ” and “Tomorrow’s Missing Children.”The conference asked specifically about the health of mountain children but addressed the health of children state-wide. Berea College and Dr. Francis and Mrs. Hutchins were sp0onsors of the conference.

An outline of mountain issues is included in the correspondence. 

Whose will they be?
What Opportunity will they find?
How shall we plan for them?

“… tomorrow’s children … Whose will they be? What will be their heredity, the conditions of their coception and birth their environment and their health and welfare? What is the responsibility of the state and nation in the solution of their problems? Then too, as the children grow up what home and school advantages will they have? What economic social and political opportunities will they find? …

These were issues that Rood felt a deep respnsibility to address all her life and the children of the Pine Mountain Community are better for her wise counsel, her skills and her dedication. 

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GALLERY – Grace M. Rood 1940 Correspondence

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CONTENTS – Grace M. Rood 1940 Correspondence

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Feb. 23, 1940 – Jean B. Tachau (President, The Kentucky Birth Control League, Louisville, KY) to Glyn Morris.
Tachau invites Morris to participate in the Kentucky Section of the Southern Conference (an outgrowth of the Conference held in Atlanta in November 1939) to discuss the book “Tomorrow’s Children,” to be held at the Brown Hotel in Louisville, KY, on March 30. Mr. Barry Bingham is Chairman of the KY section. Title of conference: “Mountain Home as the mother herself sees it.”

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Feb. 27, 1940 – Morris to Techau
Morris declines taking part in a conference at Brown Hotel due to a schedule conflict. Suggests Miss Grace Rood instead, “who knows the mountain home much better than I do and who would provide, I think, more practical ideas than I could.” Encloses an account of her work.

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Mar 1, 1940 – Techau to Morris
Techau thanked Morris for his interest; Hatcher will contact Miss Rood. Mentions having visited PMSS over a year ago and talked with Morris and Rood about “extending our work into your County.” Since then she has corresponded with Mrs. R.E. Baker and Dr. [Howard] Ingling. She feels it is “natural that any discussion of children should raise the questions which child spacing and family limitation seem concerned with.”

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Mar 5, 1940 – Barry Bingham (President of The Courier-Journal/Louisville TImes) to Morris
Bingham asks Morris if his name could be included on the list of sponsors.

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Mar 17, 1940 – J. Wesley Hatcher, Dept. of Sociology, Berea College, to Miss Rood.
Hatcher sent Rood an outline of the paper on “Tomorrow’s Children,” that he will present at the March 30th Conference. “Your wide acquaintance with the economic, cultural and psychological background of the people of the mountains and your intimate and vital contact with individuals and families qualify you in a very unusual way to lead such a discussion.”

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Mar 24, 1940 – Florence S. Goodwin, Louisville, KY, to Miss Rood
Goodwin asks Rood to meet with her after the Conference. Dr. Ingling says he “misses Pine Mountain very, very much.” Distressed to hear that the serving hall [Laurel House I] burned down. 

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Outline of Hatcher’s paper, “The Mountain Family in Perspective,” pages 1 and 2.

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Brochure: “Conference on ‘Tomorrow’s Children,’ November 9, 10, 11, 1939.” Cover and 3 pages.

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Introduction, agenda, and program for the Kentucky Branch of Conference on Tomorrow’s Children on March 30, 1940, at Brown Hotel, Louisville, Ky. Included is a list of sponsors.

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April 1, 1940 – Bingham to Rood
Barry Bingham, President & Publisher, The Courier-Journal and The Louisville Times to Miss Rood, thanking Rood for the part she “played in making the Kentucky Conference on Tomorrow’s Children so successful.”

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April 2, 1940 – Tachau to Rood
Jean B. Tachau, President, The Kentucky Birth Control League, Louisville, KY, to Miss Rood, thanking Rood for her “contribution to the discussion at the Conference on Tomorrow’s Children.

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SEE ALSO:

GRACE M. ROOD Staff  Biography
GRACE M. ROOD CORRESPONDENCE 1940
GRACE M. ROOD CORRESPONDENCE 1962 Fern Hayes
GRACE M. ROOD 1897-1988 Life and Stories Introduction ‘Amazing Grace’
GRACE M. ROOD STORIES 1932-1962 My Life At Pine Mountain Settlement School
GRACE M. ROOD STORIES 1932-1962 Come To The Mountains
GRACE M. ROOD STORIES 1932-1962 Room For Six Strangers
GRACE M. ROOD STORIES 1932-1962 My God My Jeep and I
GRACE M. ROOD STORIES 1932-1962 Now I’ve Seen It All!
GRACE M. ROOD STORIES 1932-1962 Billy and I Go To Asheville For Thanksgiving
GRACE M. ROOD STORIES 1932-1962 DARRELL
GRACE M. ROOD STORIES 1932-1962 A Zipper In A Sleeve
GRACE M. ROOD STORIES 1932-1962 ‘Lum And Bertha And Little Joe
GRACE M. ROOD STORIES 1932-1962 My First Night Trip
GRACE M. ROOD STORIES 1932-1962 Harlan County in 1955
GRACE M. ROOD STORIES 1932-1962 We Take Teenie To Graduation
GRACE M. ROOD STORIES 1932-1962 Marie Pennington
GRACE M. ROOD Tributes “My Most Unforgettable Character” 1951

GRACE M. ROOD Photograph Album One
GRACE M. ROOD Photograph Album Two

GRACE M. ROOD Staff – Biography
GRACE M. ROOD 1940 Correspondence

MEDICAL – Introduction

MEDICAL Guide
MEDICAL Staff Lists

MEDICAL, HEALTH & HYGIENE

GUIDE TO MEDICAL, HEALTH AND HYGIENE

INFIRMARY

 

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