Midwife on Job Here 32 Years
African Americans--Florida--Sanford
Sanford (Fla.)
Georgetown (Sanford, Fla.)
Midwives--United States
A newspaper article about Marie Jones Francis, the "midwife of Sanford." Francis left behind a successful hotel and restaurant she owned in Sarasota in 1942 to return to Sanford and become a midwife. World War II caused a shortage in doctors and nurses, so Florida's Children's Bureau sent Francis to Florida A & M to acquire her practical nursing license in 1945. She specialized in premature babies and returned to Sanford to aid her mother, Carrie Jones, at Fernald-Laughton Memorial Hospital before they opened the ward in their home. "When her health starting failing," she recollects in a newspaper article, "I took over." Francis converted her house at 621 East Sixth Street to also serve as a maternity ward, where she delivered over 40,000 babies over her 32 year career. She became a midwife in the same vein as her mother, Carrie Jones, and together they ran the Jones-Francis Maternity Hall in Georgetown. <br /><br /> Francis served her community in several ways. She delivered babies for both white and black families from Seminole County, primarily patrons who either preferred natural births or could not afford deliveries at a hospital. In the 1950s, it cost $70 to stay nine days where soon-to-be mothers were taken care of. Francis was assisted by her sister, Annie Walker, who did the cooking. The house and ward also served as a school, where Marie Francis taught nurses the art of midwifery. Nurses would come from across the state to learn how to delivery infants naturally. A heavy burden on a single working mother, Marie Francis had three daughters, Cassandra Clayton, Daphne Humphrey, and Barbara Torre. Clayton and Humphrey became school teachers and Torre became a purchaser at Seminole Memorial Hospital.
Moore, Stacy
Original newspaper article: Moore, Stacy. "Midwife on Job Here 32 Years." <em>The Little Sentinel</em>, April 4, 1979: Private Collection of Daphne F. Humphrey.
<em>The Little Sentinel</em>
Frey, Bob
Humphrey, Daphne F.
application/pdf
eng
Text
Sarasota, Florida
Florida Agricultural and Mechanical College, Tallahasse, Florida
Jones-Francis Maternity Hall, Georgetown, Sanford, Florida
Fernald-Laughton Memorial Hospital, Sanford, Florida
Oral History of Shirley Muse
Oral history--United States
Sanford (Fla.)
Museums--Florida
Archives--Florida--Administration
Archivists--United States
University of Central Florida. Department of History
Sanford, Henry Shelton, 1823-1891
Oral history interview of Shirley Muse, collection cataloger for the UCF Public History Center, located at 301 West Seventh Street in Sanford, Florida. Muse was born in Corvallis, Oregon, on May 16, 1936. She was raised in the Panama Canal Zone. In 1958, Muse married her husband while attending Florida State University in Tallahassee. She received a Bachelor of Arts degree in Library Science that same year. She worked in the Florida Public School System as a Librarian/Media Specialist for 20 years until 1999. Following her retirement, Muse began volunteering at the Student Museum and Center for Social Studies. This interview was conducted by Jesse Glasshoff at the UCF Public History Center on October 12, 2012.
Glasshoff, Jesse
Muse, Shirley
Muse, Shirley. Interviewed by Jesse Glasshoff. UCF Public History Center. October 12, 2012. Audio/video record available. UCF Public History Center, Sanford, Florida.
video/mp4
application/pdf
eng
Moving Image
Student Museum and Center for the Social Studies,Sanford, Florida
UCF Public History Center, Sanford, Florida