By Jessica Davis, JTNews Correspondent
In 1945, almost 60 years ago, Jewish nurse Edith Heinemann Harris met Maxine Haynes, the first African American nurse to be hired at Providence (now Swedish) Medical Center in Seattle.
“She looked to me so beautiful and she was all alone,” said Harris about Haynes. “Nobody seemed to help her or show her around.”
Harris befriended her and now, Haynes, 84, and Harris, 83, both retired, appreciate the bond they shared.
“It’s hard to believe that people acted the way they did,” said Harris.
Harris was 18 in 1939 when she came to Seattle from Germany with her mother, father and other members of her family. Her mother’s mother had a brother who lived in Seattle and had kept up their relationship, so he sponsored the family and let them stay in his apartment building. Harris said she never made a secret about being Jewish.
Her first job was as a maid at the Kline Galland Home, where she met her future husband Fritz Harris, who worked there as a janitor. After seeing a movie that showed nurses in nice-looking uniforms, she was inspired to take up nursing.
Fritz took her to Virginia Mason to study nursing, but she was not admitted to the school. Harris has a hunch she was denied because of her Jewish background.
Meanwhile, Haynes experienced her own share of rejection. Though she faced discrimination throughout her childhood — not being allowed to join the Girl Scouts, for instance — she hit a major racial roadblock in 1939 when the dean of the UW School of Nursing told her, “We are not taking colored girls.”
This was in spite of the fact that she was already a student at the university.
At that time, Harborview was the only hospital in Seattle that had hired an African American nurse. Haynes wrote to the American Nurses Association to ask where a “colored girl” could study nursing. All of those schools were on the other side of the country. Undeterred, Haynes selected a school in New York and traveled there by train. As a Seattle native, Haynes was a stranger to the East Coast, but she had been inspired to study nursing after watching a nurse take care of her grandfather.
“I thought she was like an angel,” said Haynes.
Haynes earned a degree in sociology before earning her degree in nursing. In the December of the year she went back to school, World War II began. Being so far away from her family during the war upset her, so she worked at New York’s Bellevue Hospital and got reciprocity for Washington State. In 1945, she returned to Seattle as a registered nurse.
Although neither of them were Catholic, Harris and Haynes ended up working together at Providence, a Catholic hospital. They were required to pray every morning at the hospital. A nun would lead the daily prayer.
When Haynes started working at the hospital, no one would talk to her. She sat alone in the cafeteria. During her first shift, she looked at patients’ charts, introduced herself to the patients and observed the other nurses with linens on their arms to find out where the linens were kept.
“[Haynes] was one of the original people to break the color code,” said Harris.
Harris came over and introduced herself to Haynes, and complimented Haynes on her excellent care. That was the first nice thing Haynes had heard that day. It made a lasting impression on her.
“I went home so happy to tell my family about [Edith],” said Haynes. “It really affected me.”
“Somehow or another we became friends,” she added. “I was always happy to see her and she always greeted me.”
As an employee, Haynes crossed paths with Harris again. They both ended up working for the University of Washington, and the two retired nurses usually see each other twice annually at the Old Guard meeting for former employees of the UW School of Nursing.
“Everywhere I’ve gone, I’ve talked about Edith,” said Haynes.
Haynes recently had a new Swedish Medical Center nursing scholarship named in her honor. The scholarship recognizes employees who are facing unique challenges and demonstrate a dedication to the diversity of the profession. Each recipient receives $4,000 for tuition or other school-related expenses.