Betty E. White

R. W. Tonning, Dr R H Noell, Betty White, Annie M Joyner, Dr Roy Morrow

The poor quality photograph you see above is of Miss Betty Eliza White receiving a watch at her retirement from the Atlantic Coast Line Hospital in Rocky Mount, North Carolina in 1953. 

Betty White (1880-1967) was born in Shelltown, Maryland to Ephriam C White and Elizabeth “Lizzie” Cluff White.   The family moved to Stockton Maryland where Ephriam farmed.  By 1900 their family consisted of Lola, Clarence, Minnie, Henry, George, Lillian, and Allen. Lola became a school teacher in Stockton.  Henry Pauling White and George Edward White went to work for the railroad and moved to Delmar.  Their sister, Betty, also moved to Delmar.  She lived in Delmar and attended school at the University of Maryland Nursing school and after graduating in 1915, took additional classes at John Hopkins. 

  

She took a job as a nurse at the James Walker Memorial Hospital in Wilmington, North Carolina about 1919.  She spent three years there before accepting a job at the Atlantic Coast Line (ACL) Hospital in Rocky Mount in 1922.

In 1892 the Atlantic Coast Line (ACL) Railroad (previously the Wilmington and Weldon) established a complex of maintenance, repair, construction and refueling facilities for the railroad known as Emerson Shops in South Rocky Mount. Although the shops were located outside the city limits, the numerous workers directly impacted the growth of the town.

The first hospital in Rocky Mount was the 1898 Atlantic Coast Line Hospital which served only the employees of the railroad and their dependents.  The hospital was a 50 bed facility with a complete staff of Doctors, surgeons, dentist, and nurses. The first hospital burnt in 1921 and by 1922 a new Atlantic Coast Line Hospital was built.  This hospital operated until 1956 when the railroad sold the hospital to Charles Dunn who created the Guardian Corporation and converted the hospital to a 84 bed nursing home. 

After her retirement she moved to Accomac, Virginia to live with her sister Lillian (Mrs William Ross) who was also a nurse.  She spent her time in Virginia and Florida.  In 1967 she passed away.  She was the last of her family.