Polio Wars (104 page)

On November 30, 1952 Elizabeth Kenny died, surrounded by a niece, 2 sisters, and Mary Kenny McCracken.
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She was buried beside her mother at the Nobby Cemetery after a church service at Toowoomba's Neil Street Methodist Church. The church was full of people, many weeping openly. Charles Carson and his wife were there as were Kenny's Brisbane allies Abraham Fryberg, Aubrey Pye, Jarvis Nye, and Herbert Wilkinson. Even those who had disagreed with Kenny, the minister declared during the church service, which was broadcast by the Australian Broadcasting Commission, “nevertheless recognized the honesty and sincerity with which she pursued what was a God-given work.” In what would become the first of many efforts to assess her significance, he declared that “the value of her work will become more apparent to future generations than it has been to men of our age.”
²⁹⁹

Her funeral was observed in celebrity fashion, which would have delighted her. Hundreds of people stood in silent groups along the funeral route as the 8-car funeral cortege traveled from the Toowoomba church to the cemetery. At the graveside her coffin was covered with the Union Jack (the British flag that traditionally covered the coffins of Australia's war dead) and the United States flag (the Australian Blue Ensign was not formally designated the national flag until 1953). There were wreaths of chrysanthemums, red roses, and other floral tributes around the coffin, including a wreath designed by Kenny's Toowoomba housekeeper in the shape of outstretched arms with a card that read “from your garden.”
³⁰⁰
Pearl Baldock, who attended the funeral, sent a laurel wreath on behalf of the QCWA. Wreaths also came from the staff of the Jersey City clinic and from the Minneapolis Institute.
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Members of the Returned Servicemen's League and the Australian Army laid poppies—the flower of remembrance that was used to raise money for veterans—at the graveside.
³⁰²
The
Brisbane Courier-Mail
had 3 photographs of the funeral: giant gum trees “as sentinels” above her grave surrounded by mourners, the British and American flags on her coffin, and children from Nobby State School in their summer uniforms standing in 2 lines as the hearse passed.
³⁰³
Her tombstone was inscribed with the false birth date she had popularized: 1886 instead of 1880.

Then the obituaries appeared. Some were short, like the one in
Newsweek
, which noted in only 8 lines that she had “fought many years to have the medical fraternity accept her method of treating polio” but that finally the Mayo Clinic and the University of Minnesota “gave her the support she needed.”
³⁰⁴
Some were long. The
New York Times
began her obituary on its front page and continued for 2 more columns inside.
³⁰⁵
JAMA
had 4 short lines but other medical journals allowed more space. The
Lancet
used two-thirds of a column, the
Medical Journal of Australia
used 2 columns, and the
British Medical Journal
devoted 2 pages.
³⁰⁶

Most major Australian newspapers reported on her death. The
Sydney Morning Herald
retold her life and career, pointing out that, unlike America and Europe, Australia had never valued her properly.
³⁰⁷
Sir Arthur Fadden, the Acting Prime Minister, called her “a great Queenslander who had become a great Australian and a great international figure.”
³⁰⁸
Health minister Earle Page, who had been a prominent opponent, awkwardly described his admiration for her “wonderful energy and enthusiasm” and her “extraordinary and dynamic character.”
³⁰⁹
Abraham Fryberg, now Queensland's Director-General of Health, declared that during the past 16 years “though I have not always agreed with her views,
I have always respected her idealism and aims.”
³¹⁰
Less tactfully and with some bitterness, Pearl Baldock declared that “Australia has lost the greatest citizen that we have produced.”
³¹¹

In America Hollywood star Rosalind Russell said “I have lost a great friend and the world has lost a great, great benefactor,” and she added dramatically that she “could not give up my Kenny work even if it means giving up my career.”
³¹²
In Minnesota obituaries and commemorations continued for some months. Whatever their differences, local papers reminded readers, American physicians recognized Kenny's contribution and there was universal acceptance today of the Kenny method or some modification of it. “The former Australian bush nurse was one of the great women of this century,” according to the
Minneapolis Star
, and the
Minneapolis Tribune
praised her contributions to American medicine as “a revolutionary treatment” and “a new explanation of the way polio acts.”
³¹³

Concrete forms of memorializing Kenny began that December. The Minneapolis Board of Education named a new million dollar elementary school after Kenny.
³¹⁴
After a memorial service at El Monte attended by nurses, officials, employees, and around a hundred other supporters, the community began renovating her cottage, which opened in 1953 as the Sister Kenny Memorial Annex, expanding the number of inpatient beds.
³¹⁵
Mary Kenny McCracken began planning a trip to California and Minnesota to present Kenny's medals and try to heal any institutional divisions.
³¹⁶
But Kenny's legacy would prove much more fragile than any of her allies had anticipated.

1.
Paul
A History
, 373–381; Kenny “This Report Was Presented to The Honorable The Premier of the State of Queensland E. M. Hanlon, M.L.A. and to Doctors Pye, Nye, Lee, Arden, Wilkinson, and Fryberg of the City of Brisbane, Queensland, Australia Concerning the Disease Poliomyelitis [1950],” Kenny Collection, Box 1, Fryer Library, 3. See also John F. Enders, Thomas H. Weller, and Frederick C. Robbins “Cultivation of the Lansing Strain of Poliomyelitis Virus in Cultures of Various Human Embryonic Tissues”
Science
(January 28 1949) 109: 85–87.

2.
On polio epidemics in Japan 1938–1942, Malta 1942–1943, El Salvador 1943, South Africa 1944–1945, Mauritius 1945, London 1947, and Berlin 1947 see Albert B. Sabin “Epidemiologic Patterns of Poliomyelitis in Different Parts of the World” in
Poliomyelitis: Papers and Discussions Presented at the First International Poliomyelitis Conference
(Philadelphia: J.B. Lippincott, 1949), 4–13.

3.
Kenny to Mr. President, Mrs. Webber and Gentlemen, May 24 1948, Board of Directors, MHS-K.

4.
Kenny “Report of My Activities In Switzerland” [1950], European Trip 1950, MHS-K; Kenny “Report of My Activities” [1950], Minnesota-Hospitals 1944–1961, Judd Papers, MHS.

5.
C. J. McSweeney “A Visit to Poliomyelitis Centers in U.S.A.”
Irish Journal of Medical Science
(February 1951) 302: 63–73. The hospital was known as the Cork Street Fever Hospital or the House of Recovery and Fever Hospital.

6.
W. J. Treanor and F. H. Krusen “Poliomyelitis: Modern Treatment and Rehabilitation”
Irish Journal of Medical Science
(June 1950) 294: 257–269, 257. This paper was presented to the Medical Society of University College Dublin in May 1950. Kenny had heard that Krusen had told the audience that her contribution was “little or nothing”; Kenny “Report
of My Activities” [1950]; Kenny “Report of My Activities In Ireland” [1950], European Trip 1950, MHS-K.

7.
Kenny “Report of My Activities” [1950]; Kenny “Report of My Activities In Ireland” [1950].

8.
McSweeney “A Visit to Poliomyelitis Centers in U.S.A.,” 70–72.

9.
McSweeney “A Visit to Poliomyelitis Centers in U.S.A.,” 65–71.

10.
Walton Van Winkle, Jr. “Methods of Clinical Study and Evaluation of Therapeutic Agents in Poliomyelitis”
JAMA
(June 11 1949) 140: 534–539 see also [Board of Trustees] “Report of the Council on Pharmacy and Chemistry: Therapeutic Trials Committee”
JAMA
(November 5 1949) 141: 674.

11.
“Pain and Spasm in Poliomyelitis: A Symposium”
American Journal of Physical Medicine
(August 1952) 31: 321–327; Edward B. Shaw and Hulda E. Thelander “Clinical Concept of Poliomyelitis”
Pediatrics
(1949) 4: 277–285.

12.
Shaw and Thelander “Clinical Concept of Poliomyelitis,” 277–285; see also Paul H. Sandifer “Neuropsychiatry: Anterior Poliomyelitis” in Francis Bach ed.
Recent Advances in Physical Medicine
(London: J. & A. Churchill, 1950), 218–221.

13.
Sir James Spence “Poliomyelitis” in Sir Leonard Parsons ed.
Modern Trends in Pediatrics
(London: Butterworth and Co., 1951), 316.

14.
“Pain and Spasm in Poliomyelitis,” 316–345.

15.
William P. Frank, Sam S. Woolington, and G. E. Rader “Diagnosis and Differential Diagnosis of Poliomyelitis: The Management of Patients in the Hospital Admitting Room”
California Medicine
(July 1950) 73: 30–32.

16.
Shaw and Thelander “Clinical Concept of Poliomyelitis,” 277–285.

17.
Marjorie Lawrence
Interrupted Melody: An Autobiography
(New York: Appleton-Century Crofts, 1949), 194.

18.
Sandifer “Neuropsychiatry,” 221.

19.
Shaw and Thelander “Clinical Concept of Poliomyelitis,” 277–285.

20.
Victor Cohn “Sister Kenny … Back in the Battle Again”
Minneapolis Sunday Tribune
March 26 1950.

21.
Citing an unnamed 1951 survey, Kenny “Evidence Presented To The Honourable[sic] The Minister For Health, Sydney, New South Wales, Aust.” [1952], Wilson Collection.

22.
McSweeney “A Visit to Poliomyelitis Centers in U.S.A,” 67.

23.
“Fusion Fete Upset By Morris' Attack”
New York Times
October 5 1950; Kenny “Concerning the Extension of My Work in the State of California” [1949], Board of Directors, MHS-K.

24.
“Sister Kenny Coming to U.S.”
New York Times
April 6 1949; H. J. London to H. Van Riper Memorandum Re: Attached Clipping, April 6 1949, Public Relations, MOD-K.

25.
Doug Tucker “Chuter, Charles Edward (1880 - 1948)”
Australian Dictionary of Biography
, Volume 13 (Melbourne: Melbourne University Press, 1993), 427–428.

26.
Kenny “This Report Was Presented,” 3–4; “Sister Kenny Won World Fame By Polio Treatment”
Sydney Morning Herald
December 1 1952; [Aubrey Pye] to Dear Cecil [Cecil I. N. Walters, Prince Henry Hospital, Sydney], October 16 [1951], Kenny Collection, Fryer Library; Chuter to Mr. Schneider [RKO Pictures, Brisbane] Memorandum: Re: Script of Picture “Sister Kenny” October 23 1945, OM 65-17, Box 3, Folder 12, Chuter Papers, Oxley-SLQ.

27.
“Sister Kenny Yields Reins of Foundation”
New York Times
April 21 1949; “Doctor Heads Fund in Place of Sister Kenny”
New York Herald Tribune
April 21 1949; “Sister Kenny Will Continue Aid”
Los Angeles Examiner
April 21 1949; “Sister Kenny Denies Talk”
New York Times
May 4 1949; Marvin Kline to Dear Doctor Laruelle, April 22 1949, Dr. Leon Laruelle, 1945–1951, MHS-K.

28.
Kenny to Dear Bessie, May 17 1949, Kenny Collection, Box 1, Fryer Library; see also Alexander
Maverick
, 178 who notes that Kenny had pneumonia during this Australian visit. For a similar letter and tone see Kenny to Dear Rosalind, May 25 1949, Rosalind Russell (Brisson), 1947–1952, MHS-K.

29.
Note that she had commented on her “troublesome” arm and right hand to Mary and Stuart McCracken; see Kenny to My Dear Mary and Stuart, September 24 1946, Mary Stewart Kenny, 1942–1947, MHS-K; Kenny to Dear Mary and Stuart [December 1947], Kenny Collection, Fryer Library.

30.
“Sister Kenny Will Continue Aid.”

31.
[Pye] to Dear Sister Kenny, June 6 1949, Kenny Collection, Fryer Library.

32.
“Sister Kenny Ends Task”
Minneapolis Morning Tribune
April 21 1949; “Sister Kenny Quits U.S. Work”
Minneapolis Morning Tribune
April 21 1949; Victor Cohn “Sister Kenny Wins New Medical Praise”
Minneapolis Morning Tribune
October 4 1949; “Dr. E. J. Huenkens, Pediatrician, Dies” [unnamed newspaper] July 23 1970, Box 19, Folder 3, Myers Papers, UMN-ASC. Huenkens had his M.D. from the St. Louis University Medical School and had interned at the Minneapolis General Hospital; he taught at the University of Minnesota Medical School 1948–1953. Note that Huenkens became medical director of the Institute in 1948 after Pohl resigned; Alexander
Maverick
, 177.

33.
“Sister Kenny Will Continue Aid”; E. J. Huenkens to My Dear Doctor Landauer, September 10 1949, Public Relations, MOD-K; “Doctor Heads Fund in Place of Sister Kenny.”

34.
E. J. Huenkens to Dear Doctor, September 1 1949, Public Relations, MOD-K.

35.
Van Riper to Mr. Savage Memorandum Re: Visit from Dr. E. J. Huenkens, Kenny Foundation and Institute, January 7 1949, Public Relations, MOD-K.

36.
E. J. Huenkens to My Dear Doctor Landauer, September 10 1949.

37.
“Sister Kenny Foundation Offers Scholarships”
Washington Post
July 19 1949; “Kenny Scholarships Go to Four Illinois Nurses”
Chicago Daily Tribune
June 25 1949.

38.
Edgar J. Huenkens “Diagnosis and Treatment of Infantile Paralysis”
Postgraduate Medicine
(February 1950) 7: 100–105.

39.
[Cohn interview with] Amy Lindsey, May 19 1955, Cohn Papers, MHS-K. See also Jean Barclay
In Good Hands: The History of the Chartered Society of Physiotherapy, 1894–1994
(Oxford: Butterworth-Heinemann, 1994), 144; Sandifer “Neuropsychiatry,” 219.