DUANE
Duane's take
Here's how the official marker tells it, and I'm gonna do it justice. Now, if you've ever driven through Bell County and wondered what kind of person quietly shapes a whole profession — not with fanfare, not with headlines, but with sheer staying power — let me tell you about Anna Laura Cole. She came into this world on October 27, 1909, in the farming community of Turney, Texas.
Small beginning. Big trajectory. She finished high school, spent a year at Lon Morris College, and then in 1928 she walked through the doors of Scott and White School of Nursing.
Three years later, she walked back out — as valedictorian. Not just a graduate. The top of her class.
Scott and White took notice. She was appointed assistant director of nursing education, then named a nursing school instructor. And then came 1933 — and 1933 was no ordinary year to step into a leadership role.
The Depression had laid its hands on everything, and Scott and White was feelin' the weight of it — cutbacks, pressures, an institution trying to hold its standards together while the ground kept shifting. That was the moment Anna Laura Cole became director of both the nursing school and nursing services for the hospital and clinic. Director of both.
At once. In a crisis. And if that wasn't enough, Texas itself was in the middle of a nursing shortage so severe that the entire state had just one registered nurse for every one thousand and thirty-three persons.
One nurse for over a thousand people. You let that number sit for a second. But Cole didn't just manage the crisis — she kept growing through it.
In 1940, she earned her bachelor of nursing education from the University of Texas Medical Branch, becoming the very first person to receive a diploma in that new baccalaureate program. First. In a brand-new program.
While running a nursing school and nursing services for a hospital and clinic. That's not multitasking — that's a different category of human being. After World War Two, she turned her energy toward the future of the profession.
She served on the state board of nurse examiners and the board of vocational nurse examiners. Under her guidance, schools of vocational nursing opened, training and licensing vocational nurses under what the marker calls the highest standards. She supervised a nursing dormitory on campus.
She sat on numerous medical and educational boards. And through all of it, she mentored student nurses — year after year, class after class. In 1969, after thirty-eight years with Scott and White, Anna Laura Cole retired.
By then, she had trained nearly eight hundred and seventy nurses. Nearly eight hundred and seventy people who went out into hospitals and clinics and communities carrying something she gave them. The marker says the foundations she laid remain firm — in the nursing profession, in Bell County, and across the state of Texas.
And when you think about eight hundred and seventy trained nurses fanning out across decades, each one touching hundreds of lives of their own — well. That farming community of Turney sent something remarkable into the world on October 27, 1909. And the world is still feelin' it.
What the marker says
Anna Laura Cole was born on October 27, 1909, in the farming community of Turney, Texas. Cole finished high school and attended Lon Morris College for a year before enrolling at Scott & White School of Nursing in 1928. After graduating in 1931 as valedictorian, Cole was appointed assistant director of nursing education and then named as a nursing school instructor. In 1933, she became the director of both the nursing school and nursing services for the hospital and clinic at a difficult time for the medical institution and for the profession of nursing. Devastated by the depression, Scott & White weathered many cutbacks while trying to maintain quality medical and nursing care. In 1933, Texas was experiencing a nursing shortage with one registered nurse for every 1,033 persons. Despite the pressures of her post, Cole earned her bachelor of nursing education from the University of Texas Medical Branch in 1940, the first to receive a diploma in the new baccalaureate program. After WWII, Cole was instrumental in efforts to enhance nursing education and served on the state board of nurse examiners and the board of vocational nurse examiners. Under her guidance, schools of vocational nursing opened, training and licensing vocational nurses under the highest standards. In addition to Cole’s administration of the Scott & White Nursing School and her position on numerous medical and educational boards, Cole supervised a nursing dorm on campus and mentored many student nurses over the years. Cole retired in 1969 after 38 years with Scott & White and, over the course of her career, trained nearly 870 nurses. The foundations laid by Cole remain firm in the nursing profession, Bell county and across the state.