Categories: L-M

Bonnie received her nursing diploma from Vancouver General Hospital in 1965 and has nursed in numerous hospitals and tertiary care centers throughout BC.  More recently she has been Director of Patient Care Services for the Simon Fraser Health Region, where she is responsible for clinical nursing education in the four acute hospitals in the region.  Prior to this  position she was Manager of  Education and Research for the Richmond Health Services Society.

Before becoming President of RNABC, she served on the Board of Directors as a director at large, vice-president and president elect.  She aims to give nursing a higher visibility with the public and policy makers regarding practice.

Contents of Biographical File

1. Resume
2. RNABC Profile, 2002
3. Bonnie Lantz, “Self-determination”, Nursing BC, December 2001, p. 4.
4. Bonnie Lantz, “Silence Is not Golden,” Nursing BC, 2002, p. 4.

Nancy completed her nursing studies at the Kingston’s School of Nursing in 1968 and her BSc at Queens in 1969.  She taught in Montreal for several years before moving to Vancouver in 1979.       Here she joined the BC branch of the Red Cross and completed her MBA.

Nancy subsequently worked for the International Committee of the Red Cross in such places as Zaire, Ethiopia, Kuwait and Bosnia, facilitating the provision of medical care in areas rife with war and violence.  Her last assignment was in Chechnya at the hospital in Novye Aragi.

In the morning of December 17, 1996 masked gunmen entered the hospital compound and killed six Red Cross workers.  Malloy became the first Canadian Red Cross worker to be murdered abroad.

Nancy was posthumously awarded the Florence Nightingale Medal from the International Committee of the Red Cross, and in September 1997 she received the Meritorious Service Medal from Governor General Romeo LeBlanc.  In June 2001 a monument was unveiled in Ottawa to recognize those who died abroad while supporting Canada’s role in international development and humanitarian assistance.

Contents of Biographical File

1. “Friends Remember “ Nurse’s Presence”, Vancouver Sun, December 18, 1996, pp. A1, A9.
2. Malcolm Gray and Scott Steele, “Canadian Nurse Slain in Chechnya”, MacLeans, December 30, 1996.
3. “Nancy Malloy Remembered as a Nurse’s Nurse”, Nursing BC, January-February 1997, p. 11.
4. “15 Years Later:  Remembering Nancy Malloy”, Museum of Health Care Blog
5. “Canadian Nurses Grieve for Slain Red Cross RN”, The Canadian Nurse, February 1997, pp. 20-21.
6. Nursing BC (29), 4 (August-September 1997, p. 31.
7. Monument to Canadian Aid Workers https://Wikipedia.org.wiki/Monument_to_Canadian_Aid_Workers

Meuser, Faye Elizabeth (1938-2007)

Faye graduated from Victoria Hospital School of Nursing where she worked until her return to University of Western Ontario in 1963 to complete her BScN.  She worked in St. Paul ’s post-anesthetic room from 1974 until her retirement in 2000. Faye was an active member of the BC History of Nursing Group, volunteering with the St. Paul’s Hospital Archives Department.

Contents of Biographical File

1. Photocopied photographs and information for Pages of History
2. Curriculum Vitae
3. Note from Nina Rumen
4. Three photographs
5. Obituary

MacDonald, Katherine Ann (1928-

Born in High River Alberta, Katherine had a diverse education and a varied career.  The former included an RN from the Royal Alexandra Hospital of Nursing in Edmonton and an MA in psychology from the Adlerian School of Professional Psychology in Chicago, as well as attendance at numerous workshops.   She states that while she has not been actively involved in independent research, she was committed to research-based practice.

Katherine left nursing for fourteen years to raise her five children.  On her return, she became a staff nurse at Foothills Hospital in Calgary, and then a nursing instructor at the same hospital.  She spent a number of years in private practice as a lifestyle counsellor, and from 1978 to 1995 taught at Okanagan University College.

Contents of Biographical File

1. Biographical Information Profile
2. Photocopied photograph
3. Curriculum Vitae

Lavoie, Hilda Agnes (1924-2017)

Hilda graduated From St. Paul’s in 1945.  She was assigned to the St. Paul’s premature nursery ward, and was one of the first nurses from St. Paul’s to accompany airlift rescues by the RCAF in remote areas of BC.  She recalls the work, though often hindered by primitive conditions, as immensely satisfying.

Contents of Biographical File

1. Leon-Manlangit, Patrisha de, “A Lifetime of Special Deliveries,” Burnaby Now, February 27, 2002.
2. Oral History referral sheet.
3. E-mail with information on her career working at the intensive care nursery at St. Paul’s Hospital. -2007

Ladner, Dorothy (1918-1996)

See Pages of History, Fonds 18, Series 3, Subseries 9, File 2

See Zerr, Sheila J. Rankin and Zilm, Glennis, Labor of Love:  A Memoir of Gertrude Richards Ladner 1879 to 1976.

Dorothy Ladner graduated from VGH in 1942 and with a Bachelor of Applied Science in nursing from UBC in 1944.  After serving in WW II as a medical nurse in the RCAF, she joined the BC Public Health Service.  She received a Masters’ in Public Health from the University of Pittsburgh in 1965 and then returned to administrative positions, becoming stationed in Prince George as supervisor in the Northern Interior Unit.

Keenly interested in the welfare of children, she became Executive Director of the Variety Club’s Children’s Treatment Centre in Surrey, but serious head injuries in 1987 from a car accident necessitated her continued care for the remainder of her life.  After her death, her sister Edna Ladner endowed the UBC Faculty of Medicine with a memorial fellowship in her name for a graduate student doing research on the treatment of traumatic brain injury.

Contents of Biographical File

• Biography from “1940’s Amazing Alumni Stories” on Internet

Laisnes, Marjorie

            From 2003 to 2013 Marjorie Laisnes worked as a home care nurse in Arviat (Eskimo Point), which gave her unique insights into the Inuit culture.  She recounts the rigours of life in the north, but also the immense personal satisfaction she drew from her work.  “The experience taught me patience, to slow down and enjoy the moment, the sunset, the kid’s games.  I have learned to be less of a consumer”.

Contents of Biographical File

• Marjory Laisnes. “Caregiving in the Canadian Arctic”, East Kootenay Caregivers Network newsletter, Fall 2014, no. 36

Lam, Anna Dickman (1906-1996)

Anna Lam was likely the first Chinese nurse registered in BC.  She was the daughter of the Fong-Dickmans, leaders of the Chinese community, and a talented pianist who retained a keen interest in music throughout her life.  Her application for nurse training was rejected by four area hospitals; she was finally accepted by King’s Daughters Hospital in Duncan.  She graduated in 1929, but her Chinese background made finding employment difficult.  In the 1930s she was a pianist for the YWCA aerobics classes, and later took up painting.  She was also an enthusiastic fan of the BC Lions.

While she and her family experienced great discrimination in her early life, her family became prominent among the social elite of British Columbia.  Her home was a center for dinner parties and musical evenings.

Contents of Biographical File

1. Letter from E. Paulson to B. Fitzpatrick re A. Lam, March 28, 1996.
2. Letter from K. Murphy to E. Warbinek re A. Lam, March 23, 1996.
3. “Lives Lived”, the Globe and Mail, April 1, 1996, p. A20.
4. Letter from History of Nursing News to Diana Lam, June 30, 1996.
5. Esther Paulson, History of Nursing News, Spring 1996, p. 5.
6. E-mail re Anna Lam as BC’s first Chinese nurse.
7. Letter from Diana Lam to E. Paulson, March 20, 1996.
8. Program for A. Lam’s remembrance service.
9. Card recognizing donation in Anna Lam’s name to the Memorial gift fund.
10. Newspaper obituary

Langton (nee Homfray), Geraldine “Gerry” E. (ca.1910-1995)

See Oral History files, Fonds 18, Series 3, Subseries 8.

After graduating from the VGH School of Nursing in 1931 and with a BASc(N)  from UBC in 1931. Geraldine worked as a public health nurse in Chilliwack.  She recalls that “You were on your own and you had to make decisions.”  In 1934 she was promoted to supervisor at the Cowichan Health Center on Vancouver Island, and in 1936 joined the newly formed Metropolitan Health Committee in Vancouver.  She took a Masters’ of Arts at George Peabody College for Teachers in Nashville, and taught at UBC from 1939 to 1943.

She left nursing in 1943, perhaps to get married, but returned to nursing in 1964 as a public health nurse in Abbotsford and later Haney.  She worked extensively with former residents of Riverview (psychiatric) Hospital, helping them to lead more productive and fulfilling lives.

Contents of Biographical File

1. Transcript of an oral history interview, August 1988.
2. Geraldine Langton and Isabelle Chodat, “Planning Field Experience for a Postgraduate Course in Public Health Nursing,” The Canadian Nurse (1942) 39 (11), 739-744.
3. “News Notes”, The Canadian Nurse (1939), 35 (9), 595.
4. Geraldine Homfray, “Developing Hidden Skills,” The Canadian Nurse (1940), 36 (10), 690-691.
5. Geraldine Homfray, “A Short History of the Royal Inland Hospital, Kamloops. B.C.”
6. Obituary
7. Biography by Ethel Warbinek
8. Photograph

Lansdell (nee Coursier), Joan P.  (1934-   

See Oral History Files, Fonds 18, Series 3, Subseries 8, AUOH41, CDOH33

Joan graduated from VGH in 1957 and from UBC with a BSN in 1958. On completion of nursing at UBC, she commenced work at Vernon Jubilee Hospital.  Her subsequent postings include the Central Vancouver Island Health Unit, Dawson Creek, Squamish, the Boundary Health Unit, South Okanagan Health Unit and Penticton.  Highlights of her career include developing a new prenatal program for BC Public Health nurses, making a movie of birth and breast feeding, and giving each nurse a special area to develop as she saw the need.

Contents of Biographical File

1. Biographical Information Profile
2. Photograph