An Unbreakable Bond Forged by a desire to help others, a special friendship between nursing classmates has endured nearly 70 years of love and loss
Story by Patrick Broadwater
Delores Keefer Seward ’56N and Jane Strother Hill ’56N students have achieved some of the school’s historical have always been more alike than different. “firsts,” since many people and records from the time have They both grew up in small towns and spent significant peribeen lost to history. Clearly, Hill was one of the first, if not ods of their lives on family-owned farms southwest of Rochthe first, Black student to enroll in the nursing program. And ester. Spurred by an innate desire to help others, they enrolled just as apparent was that Hill had an overwhelmingly positive in 1953 at the University of Rochester School of Nursing, experience at the school. She said she felt like people were where they first met and later became roommates. They both rooting for her to succeed. graduated, married, got jobs, moved away, raised children and “Once I was there I don’t remember having any negative expegrandchildren, returned to their hometowns, and experienced riences,” she recalled. “I never experienced any kind of racial the unspeakable grief of losing a child. Through all the highs issues that I can think of. It was really a wonderful experience.” and lows, their friendship has endured for nearly 70 years. Approximately 120 students were enrolled in the Class It was a friendship that almost wasn’t to be. of ’56 nursing program, of whom about 75 graduated. They Reminiscing with Seward in the fall of 2021 at her home in were a tight-knit group as students, bonding over their Rochester, Hill said she was initially denied admission to the shared living quarters under the strict watchful eye of a UR nursing program. “I just got a letter saying I was not accepted. I thought no more of it until I ran into my guidance counselor and he said that there were four of us who applied from Avon and the other three were accepted,” said Hill. “He couldn’t figure it out because, academically, I was higher in my class.” Hill said the letter did not provide a reason for the denial, but she believes it was because of her race. Hill was a decorated student who was a member of the National Honor Society and a cheerleader at Avon High School. When she decided to pursue a career in nursing, she chose the University of Rochester because she thought it had the best nursing program around. Hill recalls her mother being warned by a neighbor at the time that she was making a mistake because the school did not accept Black students. “I had a wonderful life growing up and had very strong parents,” Hill said. “My dad was a farmer and my mom didn’t want to ever hear that I can’t do something. She said, ‘If that’s where you want to go, that’s where you’re going to apply.’” A short time after getting her initial letter, Hill was invited back to campus where she was subsequently admitted. Unbeknownst to her at the time, Hill’s counselor, Mr. Billies, had gone to see the school’s director of nursing, Ruth Miller Brody. “He went to see her in person. I have no idea what the conversation was. All I know is they asked me to come in for another interview after he intervened,” Hill said. "As far as I know I was the first African-American to be admitted. I never checked it out, but I was told I was the first one." Decades after the fact, it’s difficult to say definitively which
34 NURSING 2022 Volume 1
