VISITORS & FRIENDS
ABOUT FRANCES PAYNE BOLTON: THE NEW SCHOOL
Visitors HomeAbout Frances Payne Bolton:The Bolton Act |
Mrs. Bolton supported the efforts in Cleveland to build the new School of Nursing building at Case Western Reserve University, which was started in 1968. She was very pleased with the project and wrote a note saying that this "would become the center of learning for those who seek to serve others." In 1973, on the 75th anniversary of the School of Nursing, the FPB alumni awarded Mrs. Bolton a school pin with the inscription "To Frances Payne Bolton for fifty years of support, devotion and inspiration to the School of Nursing from the grateful alumni May 19, 1973." According to Olga Benderoff, the school was later told that this award was the one which pleased Mrs. Bolton the most.
Despite all her time in Washington, Mrs. Bolton maintained personal contact with student nurses
over the years. According to Miss Benderoff, she attended capping ceremonies, graduation exercises, teas, and receptions at the school. She sent personal messages to the students when she could not be present at some of the school functions. For years a block of symphony tickets was available for use by students during the concert seasons, a gift from Mrs. Bolton. She gave the dormitory a baby grand piano for student use. Frequently she entertained students at her home, the last time in 1973. She often visited with students, discussing health and physical exercises. Mrs. Bolton believed in physical fitness and practiced it herself. Morris Everett recalls that "In the winter of 1938, Mr. and Mrs. Bolton were kind enough to ask Mrs. Everett and me to visit them at their Palm Beach home.
"We arrived by car and were told that Mrs. Bolton was on the beach and to go ahead and join her there. We went to the ocean side, but could not see her anywhere. However, over to one side there was what appeared to be several blankets hung from ropes between poles making a sort of open-to the-sky tent. As we approached, Mrs. Bolton's voice came out from it asking my wife to come in, which she did. After what seemed to me quite a time, Ellie came out again and said something to the effect that all the while she had been talking to her, Mrs. Bolton had been standing on her head. A few minutes later, Mrs. Bolton joined us in her bathing suit and said it was time for her ocean dip. Before taking it, she recommended that we learn to do this sort of exercise as a way to good health. Every morning while we visited she would retire to the blanket 'compound' and assume her up-side-down position and was perfectly happy to carry on a regular conversation with anyone she invited to join her."
Clearly a short portrait of Mrs. Bolton cannot begin to capture the richness and variety of her life, but at least these wondrously varied vignettes cited above provide a quick glimpse. What is so evident after reading the remembrances is that she touched so many people at crucial points in their lives. She had many expansive ideas but never forgot that each was designed to make a real difference in the lives of individual people. This may be her most enduring contribution to American political life, and an important message for all who presume to serve the public.