Betty C. Dial

Zoom interview by Michael S. Williams

Image by Julia Wall

Class of 1968

Charlotte native Betty Craig Dial remembers the year 1968 with vivid lucidity. In June of that year, she graduated from Kate Bitting Reynolds Memorial Hospital School of Nursing, but it was the events that occurred on April 4 that further shaped her view of the world and her 53 years of service in the nursing profession. 

Yes, that was the day Martin Luther King, Jr. was assassinated in Memphis, Tennessee, but for Dial, a more personal experience transpired: Her uncle passed away from a massive heart attack. "It was a heartbreaking time," Dial recalled. "It was like we were lost. What were we to do?" His passing cemented her commitment to serve the Black community as a registered nurse. Upon graduation, Dial began working at Charlotte Memorial Hospital, now Atrium Health. "It was rewarding for me to see people get better," she said. "[Black nurses] can be the advocate ... the voice for our patients." 

Dial, who retired in 2021, came into nursing school with 16 other students, yet only nine were in her graduating class. Out of that group only a few remain: "It's just four left out of my class now," Dial said when discussing the 37th school of nursing reunion in 2024. But she said she'll never forget those nurses and her "rock," Katie B. "It was the greatest education I could have had."