Hattie Dorsey Brosnan, class of 1933, and Carol Equen Miller Lane, class of 1983, reflect the span of generations of Piedmont Hospital’s School of Nursing graduates.

More than 650 graduates of Piedmont Hospital’s School of Nursing gathered in Atlanta June 10-12 for a centennial anniversary reunion of the hospital and its nursing school.

At 93, Hattie Dorsey Brosnan, of Clinton, S.C., was the oldest graduate in attendance. It’s been 30 years since she left Piedmont Hospital as a nurse and 50 years since her last school reunion. Brosnan prepared for the reunion all year, canning peaches to “get limber.”

“I’m alive and I just wanted to be there,” she said. The nursing school reunion included a cocktail reception, brunch and dinner banquet. Alumni also received guided tours of the hospital and its historic centennial exhibit.

Makers of the 80-year-old handcrafted Madame Alexander doll collection commissioned limitededition dolls to commemorate the anniversary. The dolls don the original Piedmont student nurses uniform — a blue dress with white apron and bib.

There were five students in Piedmont’s inaugural nursing class of 1905. The women ranged in age from 19 to 29 and were selected for the program on the basis of character, maturity and previous medical experience.

In 1957 the nursing school campus was moved to the sixth floor of the new Piedmont Hospital site on Peachtree Road, and relocated again in 1962 when construction was completed on a multi-million-dollar six-story building. That facility housed 200 student residences, classrooms and laboratories. When the nursing school closed its doors in 1983, nearly 2,000 nurses had undergone training there.

“The graduates span generations and their stories recall many pivotal periods of world history and Piedmont Hospital’s history,” said Tony Smith, a graduate of the class of 1977 and secretary of the nursing school’s alumni association.

Meet some of Piedmont Hospital’s School of Nursing graduates and witnesses to history:
America was in the Great Depression when Brosnan, class of 1933, entered Piedmont Hospital’s School of Nursing. Nursing students then worked 12- hour, late-night shifts and attended classes taught by Piedmont physicians during the day. Their monthly salary was $5.

“We weren’t poor at all,” Brosnan said. “We had youth, a common purpose in mind and the strengths to carry it out.”

After graduation, Brosnan became a full-time nurse at Piedmont. Brosnan put her nursing career on hold for several years to care for her two sons but returned to Piedmont in 1964 and worked there for 10 years before moving to Greenville, S.C. She retired from nursing in 1978.

Virginia Bailey Fine, class of 1942, graduated from Piedmont’s School of Nursing shortly after the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor. She immediately enlisted in the U.S. Army Nurse Corps and put her Piedmont training into practice.

Fine, 84, of Atlanta, served as an Army nurse for three years, spending most of her time in the South Pacific. After the war, she worked for the former Veterans Administration.

Fine left nursing for 25 years to become a homemaker. She returned to Piedmont Hospital as a nurse in 1974 and retired from the hospital in 1986.

“I have so many wonderful memories of the hospital and of the nursing school,” she said. “Piedmont will always be home to me.”

Virginia Windham Knight, Ph.D., class of 1965, was only 16 years old when she started Piedmont Hospital’s nursing school program. It was at Piedmont that Knight, 59, of Arlington, Va., became fascinated with the field of psychiatry. After graduation, she worked briefly at Piedmont Hospital. She later earned a master’s degree and doctorate in nursing. Today, Knight serves as a consultant for psychiatric facilities, evaluating the standards of care provided to mentally ill patients.

The Piedmont Hospital School of Nursing graduated its last class in 1983, but not much had changed in the quality of training since 1905. Over the years, the school maintained its high training standards.

“The Piedmont nursing school held tight to perfectionism and quality,” said Georgia Warren Agrait, class of 1983. “The school was committed to graduating the best people.”

After graduation, Agrait began her career as an intensive care and emergency room nurse. Today, she is a nurse for a case management company in Fort Lauderdale, Fla.

“My training at Piedmont shaped my whole career,” Agrait said.

— Piedmont Hospital School of Nursing