Page 17 - St. Judes

Just a Couple of Lighthearted Remembrances

By Arlene Borella

In the years before the pavilion was built in front of the hospital it
was a weeping, beautiful, green soccer field! YES, a soccer field.
Unofficial, of course, but a favorite gathering spot for several of the
wonderful Latin American physicians such as John Aur, Omar
Hustu, Luis Borella, and Santiago Pavlovsky (who was with St. Jude

for a short time before returning to Argentina to found FUNDALEU
for the treatment of children with cancer. It still stands today. It was
probably the introduction of soccer into Memphis!

When Dr. Martin Luther King was assassinated in Memphis in 1968 a
rally and march in his honor was held the next day. Several of the St.

Jude staff participated in the march down town and carried signs
that read: "Honor King - End Racism". Our son still has that sign.
The press were not very happy at the large turnout and requested
an interview with then medical director Dr. Donald Pinke I. The

question was why he had allowed his staff to take time off to march
in the parade. His reply was something to the effect that he had no
right to tell them what to do with their lunch breaks! I always
thought that such a perfect response.

Somewhere in the late 1960's or early 1970's Dr. Bruce Vanzee
began a clinic to provide pre-natal care, counsel and nutrition to an
area of Memphis with a particularly high rate of maternal/child
complications and little to no prenatal care. As I recall he hoped to
demonstrate that with good pre-natal care, money could indeed be

saved in the long run. Patients were seen weekly in his clinic right
through delivery and got the best of care and assistance with all
aspects of pre-natal care. It was my pleasure to volunteer and help
in seeing these patients and sometimes even be there when they

delivered at St. Josephs. The program was called MAPSouth - which
if I recall correctly was Memphis Area Project South.

Two great social events on the larger scale (there were lots of them
between individual groups of people as I'm sure there are now) were

the Shower of Stars which in the early years were always attended