Personal/Biographical, 1910-2004
- Abstract Or Scope
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Contains materials that document Easley's personal life. Types of materials in this series are awards and honors; biographical information; Easley's philanthropy, clippings mostly pertaining to Easley's career and accomplishments but also includes an article describing an automobile collision on Guess Road at the Eno River bridge that caused permanent damage to Easley's leg, as it was left shorter than the other after the fractures healed and required her to wear special orthopedic shoes for the rest of her life. Series also contains headshots and portraits of Easley and photographs of her at various times during her life: her Idaho wedding, late 1940s photo in Durham with her husband before a trip; Easley at a medical meeting in Havana, Cuba; photographs of Easley with her husband and their orchid collection; and other photographs of Easley. Memorial materials are also included. The bulk of the memorial materials pertain to Easley's death, but there is a small amount of materials about the Boulware sisters (Lula Inez Boulware and Mary Ella Boulware Taylor) who worked for Easley and her husband. Easley met the sisters during the Great Depression in the 1930s in a hallway outside of a Duke Hospital operating room. Their bother, Glenn, had recently died, and a Duke doctor wanted his body for dissection at Duke. Their mother, Mattie McCullough Boulware, wanted to bury her son's body. At the time, Lula and Mary were working in the operating rooms at Duke and the doctor told them if they did not turn over their brother's body they would lose their jobs. Easley intervened, Lula and Mary kept their jobs, and their brother was interred. In the early 1940s, when Easley opened her own medical practice, she employed both sisters. Materials date from 1910 to 2004.
- Collection Context