MARY BRECKINRIDGE
Mary Breckenridge, born in 1881, to a family that had strong political ties, and were highly educated as well as quite wealthy. The Breckenridge family hired private tutors from Washington D.C to educate Mary. In 1894 when President Cleveland was in office, he made the Breckenridge family relocate to Russia, where her father would be the US minister. Here in Russia Mary’s younger sister was born, as she witness the birth of her sister her passion of midwifery started. In Russia, the Midwives lead the birth while the doctor supervises. Mary thought this was an interesting concept and thought about bringing this practice back to the states.
In 1897 the Breckenridge family returned to the United States and with the influence of her mother Mary married in 1904 to Henry Morrison, a lawyer, in Arkansas. The marriage was not a happy one, and Henry died two years after their marriage, they never had any children together. After her husband’s death, Mary started taking nursing classes in New York City at the Saint Luke’s Hospital. In three years, she obtained a nursing degree and returned to the south in 1910.
Two years after returning to the south Mary met and married her second husband, Richard Thompson. He was a Kentucky native who worked at a college in Arkansas. Together the two had two children, a son, and daughter. Both of the children did not live long, Polly their first born was born premature and did not survive long. Clifford Breckinridge Thompson died at the age of four from appendicitis. Similar to her first marriage the union between her and Richard was unhappy, and later the couple would divorce after eight years of marriage. To cope with her misfortunes in motherhood, Mary turned her focuses to Nursing. This would lead to her traveling across Europe meeting and learning from French and British midwives. These women gave her the inspiration to help improve health care for rural Kentucky women and lead to the creation of the Frontier Nursing Service (Haninik).
THOUGHTS ON BIRTH CONTROL
Because of the loss of her children, Mary was deeply religious and firmly believed that every child's life mattered - born or unborn. However, she also believed it was a woman's right to choose when she had a child and that said child should be wanted. Because of this she went against her religious beliefs and allowed the FNS to conduct Enviod birth control studies in Leslie County and generally supported the use of birth control.
RACHEL BOWLING
Rachel Bowling married Ott Bowling in 1925, and they raised ten children. They have lived in Leslie County almost all their lives. Rachel Bowling discusses her life as a homemaker and the details of washing, cooking, and caring for livestock. She tells how to spin wool and indicates that her children's clothes were ordered from the Montgomery Ward catalog twice a year. Ott Bowling discusses the pride they took in their home and family. The Bowlings also talk about the medical needs of a large family, birth control, and comment upon their association with the FNS nurse-midwives.
PHOEBE HAWKINS & MARY MARTIN
These two women were part of the American Committee for Devastated France (C.A.R.D.) during World Ward II where they met Mary Breckinridge during their service. They were close friends in the years following World War II, when the Frontier Nursing Service (FNS) was just getting started. As her close friends they were able to give insights on Mrs.Breckinridge's personal belief system surrounding birth control as well as give some context to the early days of the FNS.
THEIR EXPERIENCE WITH THE FNS
Phoebe Hawkins and Mary Martin recall their experiences in the New York Committee - a branch of the Frontier Nursing Service focused on raising funds. Both Phoebe and Mary discuss the auctions and parties the committee put together. They explain how the club worked in its early years. One example of their charitable endeavors is the bargain box, which the pair mention briefly throughout the segment.
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Timestamp 11:20
EXPERIENCE WITH MARY BRECKINRIDGE
Phoebe and Mary describe their relationship with Mary Breckinridge following WW1, after she had founded the Frontier Nursing Service. Phoebe tells about her visit to Mrs.Breckinridge’s centers in 1932 and the backwoods state of Appalachia during that time. Phoebe also discusses Clifton Breckinridge, who assisted mountaineers in their farming endeavors while up against the high altitudes. Mary recalls The Quarterly Bullet, a magazine which was founded and run by Mary Breckinridge.
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Timestamp 8:22
MARY WISS & PAULINE FOX
Mary Wiss worked for the Frontier Nursing Service as a nurse during the 1970s. Wiss was very involved in multiple different aspects of the FNS as she was a nurse that traveled throughout the community and worked very closely with Mrs. Breckenridge. Much of Mary Wiss time at the FNS was spent with Pauline Fox, who also was a nurse during this time. The two mentioned their work with the older equipment that the FNS had and how these pieces of equipment affected the work that the FNS was capable of doing.