Ona Mae Allen was first Black nurse at Hamilton General Hospital
Ona Mae Allen was a trailblazer and a beloved member of Stewart Memorial Church, built by runaway slaves before the U.S. Civil War.
Allen — who died April 17 at age 99, just shy of her 100th birthday — made history when she became the first Black nurse in Hamilton in 1952.
She worked at Hamilton General Hospital and was known as a 'floater,' meaning she moved between different departments and wards. She became an institution at HGH — when she retired in 1989, the hospital threw a huge retirement party for her, inviting everyone who worked at the hospital to come by. Ontario Lt-Gov. Lincoln Alexander, Canada's first Black MP and cabinet minister, dropped by with his wife, Yvonne.
'She was just a lovely lady,' said Mary Whitfield, her longtime friend and retired nurse. 'She had a great face. You knew she was on your floor because as she was going down the corridor, she was singing a hymn.'
Allen did face bouts of discrimination throughout her life. A descendant of slaves, she endured not being allowed into restaurants or dances when she was growing up.
After she became a nurse, she told The Spec in 1999, 'I had patients say 'Keep your Black hands off me' — but there were far more of the other kind of people who would accept you.'
Ona Mae Allen in her 1951 graduation photo from the Public General Hospital Nursing Class.
She believed her past helped her deal with discrimination. It 'made a strong person of me. I never let it hold me down.'
Allen was proud of what she accomplished and the barriers she knocked down for Black health-care workers who came after her.
'We had to pave the sidewalks for them to walk on,' she told The Spec in 2007. 'I didn't want them to feel trampled on because I knew what that meant.'
Whitfield, who worked in the Intensive Care Unit (ICU), said she and Allen became closer friends after Allen retired. Each January, she would get together for dinner with Allen and her husband Alfonso to mark his and Whitfield's birthdays.
'She never missed calling me and wishing me a happy birthday, even this year, her 99th year,' said Whitfield, recalling Allen always hosted a party at her Burlington home each August to mark her own birthday.
Allen was a parishioner at Stewart Memorial on John Street North for decades and was treated like royalty. She sang in the choir and served on the stewardship committee. She was also a member of the Order of the Eastern Star and received a lifetime membership from the fraternal organization in 2018.
On social media, colleague Jeannie Hope said Allen was a pleasure to be around.
'Her smiling face would always cheer everyone whenever she arrived on your ward,' she said. 'You knew it would be a good day.'
Carol Fulthorpe said, 'Ona Mae guided us through our student years with kindness and humour. (She's) treasured by all who knew her.'
Ona Mae Morris was born Aug. 7, 1925, and grew up on a farm outside North Buxton, near Chatham. It was a settlement built by slaves who arrived in Canada on the Underground Railroad. Allen's great-great-great-grandfather came to Canada through Fort Erie and her great-great-great grandmother arrived through Windsor.
She graduated from a business college in Chatham, but couldn't land a job. She worked in a tomato canning plant.
She made her way to Hamilton and Whitfield said she worked as an aide at the former Mountain Sanatorium. She said Dr. John Holbrook, who developed and built the sanatorium, recognized her abilities and encouraged her to become a nurse. Allen, Cora Prince and Marion Johnson were the first Black women to graduate from the Public General Hospital Nursing Class in 1951.
Allen is survived by her niece, Trinia Griffith Williams, and nephews, Stacy and Curtis Griffith. She was predeceased by her son, Benjamin Paul, and her husband, Alfonso Jesse.
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