Jacqueline N. Howell

Location: Hawthorne Inn and Conference Center

Interview by Michael S. Williams
Videos by Jonathan Harmon

Class of 1969

As the chair of the "Katie B." Reunion Committee, Jacqueline Noble Howell knows well the significance of the institution that closed its doors in 1970. Howell, a 1969 graduate of the Kate Bitting Reynolds Memorial Hospital School of Nursing, loves returning to Winston-Salem every year to share in the "love and appreciation" for the school. 2025 marked the 38th nursing school reunion founded in 1984 by Odessa Turner, who began working at the hospital in 1953 as a nurse’s assistant.

Howell is one of five former hospital staffers featured in the Center for Design Innovation's 2019 Present Absence public art project at the Forsyth County Department of Social Services building. She worked in the field for 35 years at the Durham Veterans Affairs Medical Center and Duke University Medical Center and as an instructor at the City of Medicine Academy in Durham.

A native of Burlington, North Carolina, Howell arrived in Winston-Salem in 1966 with all her belongings packed in foot lockers and ready for the new chapter in her life. "I was excited about beginning that journey," she said. "Professionally and personally, it was a blessing."