Phyllis R. Little

Location: North Carolina Museum of Art, Winston-Salem

Video by Julia Wall

Class of 1966

Phyllis Little's introduction to Kate Bitting Reynolds Memorial Hospital was not as a student, but as a patient. As a child in the 1950s, Little was treated for polio at the hospital, and the care she received stuck with her. Katie B. felt like "home," she said. She graduated with the class of 1966.

Little went on to work in the field for 46 years, mostly in the operating room at Wake Forest Medical Center. In 2005, she was honored as one of the "Great 100 Nurses in North Carolina." The award is "dedicated to recognizing and celebrating the outstanding contributions of nurses who have demonstrated a commitment to improving healthcare and enhancing the well-being of our communities." Little's dedication to her community, she said, emanated from nursing school. "When we left Katie B., we hit the ground running," she said. "We knew what to do. ... We were resilient."

That training served Little and her classmates well as they entered the field during desegregation. At the 37th reunion of the hospital and school of nursing in 2024, those stories of resilience were present. The graduates were "ready to conquer the world, not knowing that some people would encounter resistance," she said. But they persevered because the family — instructors and classmates — made sure they were "trained well" to do the job.