Gardenia Simmons-White:A Lifetime of Service

Story by MARY ELLEN THOMPSON
Photography by PAUL NURNBERG

Gardenia Simmons-White was born on St. Helena Island, SC in 1934. “My parents were descendants of slaves. My grandfather was Captain Richard Middleton, a fisherman, and my father was Frank Brown, Jr. He worked as a laborer on Parris Island and earned a regular paycheck. On the weekends and after work he did his own farming, planting corn, sweet potatoes and other vegetables. He also raised pigs, fished, shrimped, and picked oysters, which enabled our family to be self-sufficient. My father didn’t allow us to work in the fields but we did all the household chores.
“There were four of us: two biological sisters, Evelena Gadsden of Lady’s Island, Ethel B. deceased, and one brother Benjamin Brown (Bashir) deceased, as well as other step sisters and brothers. My mother left when we were very young and my father kept us all together and raised us. He took the girls to the women in the community to braid our hair and look after us while he was at work.”
Gardenia attended Penn Normal, Industrial and Agricultural School, which became Penn High School in 1948, from first through twelfth grade, and graduated in 1952. “I always remember what Penn School taught me: get an education and you can achieve whatever you pursue in life, be respectful, have self-esteem, and maintain your integrity. Those values enabled me to be successful in my career as a nurse.”
“When I was a child, I was taught to speak correct English and not the Gullah dialect; speaking Gullah was considered ignorant at that time. In the north, people made fun of how African Americans spoke, not knowing the reason they spoke that way. Gullah is a culture and the dialect is a combination of the tribal language of Africa and English; that dialect enabled the African Americans to communicate with their slave masters. My father did not speak in the true Gullah dialect; we didn’t hear it because we were not allowed to go to play with children who spoke Gullah.”
As a dedicated student, Gardenia knew that education prepared her to go to college. She explains, “Some of the African American students who lived on the plantations never went beyond the sixth grade in the MacDonald and Rosenwald one room schools. Penn School was the only school to offer a high school education; due to distance and finance every one could not attend Penn School. Some of the children were kept out of school to work on the sharecroppers’ farms.
“Upon graduation from Penn School, there were no jobs or opportunity for us except farming or housekeeping. This was during the segregation era and most families sent their children north with relatives for jobs and higher education. My father sent me to New York to live with a cousin where there were more opportunities for blacks and segregation was not an issue.”
When Gardenia got to New York, she found employment at the popular Horn and Hardart Restaurant where she worked for six months. She met a young lady who was a nurse’s aide at Manhattan State Hospital, who told her they were looking for nurse’s aides. She got a job there, and after six months, took a qualifying exam and was accepted in the three year diploma nursing program. She was required to live in the student nurses’ dormitory which became her home for three years. The students, a mix of men and women of Irish, German and African Americans, were given a stipend of fifteen dollars per month.
What was it like living on the grounds of a mental hospital in New York in the 1950’s? Gardenia remembers that “Located on Ward’s Island, it was beautiful! All the mental hospitals had nursing programs. The students had to spend a year at a city hospital to get their medical, surgical, OB/GYN and pediatric practice. We spent three months in a tuberculosis hospital because, at that time, TB was a disease isolated and separated from the regular hospital.”
As a young girl, did she ever think about being a nurse? “No, I didn’t think of what I wanted to be when I grew up. But I am so glad I became a nurse because I love my profession and love taking care of people!” Clearly with an affinity for her vocation, Gardenia got her RN diploma. She worked at Manhattan State Hospital for one year and left to work in the Manhattan Veterans Administration Hospital. After working full time and raising a family on her own, she went to Hunter College in Manhattan, NY to obtain a Bachelor of Science degree in Nursing. She did not stop there – she went on to get her Master of Science degree in Nursing Administration. She worked for the Veterans Administration Hospital (VA) in Brooklyn, Queens, and Manhattan for thirty three years before retiring as an Assistant Director of Nursing.
“My social life in New York consisted of going to the Apollo Theater on 125th street and dances. Many people from St. Helena Island lived in New York and formed the St. Helena League, once a year they held a dance; the proceeds from that dance were sent to Penn Center.
“In New York,” Gardenia remembers, “I just blended in with the population. My father and teachers taught us to be proud, respectful, and to respect others. When I was employed at the VA in Manhattan, I was one of five black RN’S in a large hospital with mostly white nurses and I did not feel any prejudice. I was in New York during the Civil Rights struggle in the 1960’s and learned all about that era on the television. Returning home one year with my children, I realized there were designated area for blacks only and whites only after sitting in a the white waiting room. This was a reality of what was going on in the south. I didn’t think about segregation on St. Helena Island because it was about 98% black here and isolated from others at that time. Because of segregation, we did not go into Beaufort when we were children. If we needed shoes my father would measure our feet with strings for shoes and take that measurement to Lipsitz Department store and purchase our shoes.”
Gardenia continues, “After I retired, my husband and I came back to St. Helena Island because my father and sister were here. My father had deeded us a portion of land and we had the good fortune of purchasing a house seven years before returning home.  So after being home for six months, and becoming bored, Mary Mack suggested I come to work for Beaufort Jasper Comprehensive Health Care Services. I was employed as the Quality Assurance/Infectious Disease Coordinator and later appointed as Director of Nursing; I retired after five years there.
“I got married after graduating from nursing school. My first marriage to Richard Lewis ended in divorce after twelve years and three children, Donna Gray of VA, Richard Lewis of St. Helena Island, SC and Maurice Lewis of Valley Stream, NY. I met my second husband, Frank Melvin Simmons, in New York and we were married thirty two years; he died in 1994, two years after we returned home. I remarried in 1996 to Nathaniel White and moved to Hilton Head where I lived for eight years. When he died in 2004, I again returned home to St. Helena.
In 2004, Gardenia joined the Gullah Church Nurses Association, Inc., and is now their president. Comprised of RN’s and LPN’s, their mission is to promote health education in the churches and communities. Organized to go to the churches where more people can be reached to address health issues in the African American community, they give lectures on cancer awareness, diabetes, STD’s, nutrition, CPR certification, heart disease, smoking cessation and more. Also they go to senior citizen centers to take blood pressures, show exercise videos, and address health concerns, as well as participate in several local festivals and health fairs at various churches and community events.
Dear to Gardenia’s heart is Penn Center. When the York Bailey Museum was without a director, Bernie Wright asked Ervena Faulkner and Gardenia to be co-managers until a new director could be found. They managed the museum for five years, where Gardenia now volunteers as a docent. “This is my way of giving back to Penn for helping to shape my life and never forgetting the education I received which enabled me to reach higher heights. President of the Penn Club, I am also a member of the Echoes of Penn, a chorus organized to sing spirituals as a way of keeping alive this very beautiful part of our heritage. I’m a member of the Community Sing” which is held every third Sunday in Frissell Community House at 6:30 in the evening (except June July and August) and is open to the public.
All her life Gardenia Simmons-White has been in service, as a nurse, as a mother, as a volunteer, as a friend, and a member of the community. When she offers her hand to you, it is not just a matter of etiquette; it is a pledge of dedication and sincerity. She says, “If anyone asks, if I can help, I will.” She is a member of Beaufort County Disability and Special Needs Advisory Board of Beaufort County; President of Penn Club, Inc. As a member of Faith Memorial Baptist Church, she is Senior Choir president, a Sunday school teacher and co-chair of the Angel of Hope Health Ministry. She takes part in community events such as focus and outreach groups; is a volunteer nurse at the Good Neighbor Clinic on Lady’s Island and was an honoree at Grace Chapel AME Church. To round out all of her activity she is on the Senior Bowling League. She takes a deep breath, pauses, and smiles as she says, “That’s enough for me!”