McDonald, Isabel Mary (1891-1970)

Isabel was born in Nova Scotia but moved to Greensboro, North Carolina, where she completed her nursing at St. Leo’s Hospital Training School for Nurses in 1918.  In 1920 she became a registered nurse in British Columbia, and in 1922 in California.  She appears to have stopped nursing to raise her family when she married Charles Mooney ca. 1925, but after her husband’s death in 1949 she worked as a nurse in various positions, mostly at the Pearson Tuberculosis Hospital in Vancouver.

The photograph shows Mary McDonald with her fellow graduates on the steps of St. Leo’s Hospital, Greensboro, North Carolina.  Mary is the second person from the left on the upper row.

  1. Archives Deed of Gift form with letter and e-mails, 2011.
  2. Letter from Kathy Murphy to Christine Switzer re her great-grandmother, December 13, 2010. Response from Switzer, January 2, 2012.
  3. Package prepared by Christine Switzer including timeline; thirteen photographs; Certificate of Graduation from St. Leo’s Training School for Nurses, November 29, 1918 (photocopy); Certificate for Board of Examiners of Trained Nurses of North Carolina, December 10, 1918; Canadian Nurses Association of British Columbia Certificate of Registration, November 23, 1920; California State Board of Health RN certificate, March 4, 1922; RNABC registration certificate.
  4. Greensboro Daily News article with a photograph of eight graduates From St. Leo’s Training School for Nurses, June 6, 1918 (photocopied) with accompanying letter.