Hilda B. Jolly

Location: North Carolina Museum of Art, Winston-Salem

Video by Julia Wall

Class of 1966

Hilda B. Jolly knows she owes a lot to Kate Bitting Reynolds Memorial Hospital School of Nursing. The Rocky Mount native, whose nursing career spanned 40 years, said the school took them "from the fountain to where we [are]. And that fountain was the bedrock of knowledge."

After graduating with the class of 1966, Jolly took the state boards and earned the highest score for that year. She went on to get a nursing degree from North Carolina Central University and to teach at Duke University. Jolly also worked in the Washington, D.C. area.

More than educational instruction, Jolly said the guidance on life offered at the nursing school was instrumental in how she and her classmates developed as adults. It helped them deal with Jim Crow. "We navigated the system to become nurses in that system," she said. They learned to "navigate the system" for the resources and opportunities in the field to advance their careers. Whether that meant more education or working in the least-popular hospital units, they did what was needed."