Study reveals more complete picture of city s famed nurse
Peggy Seigel
As a graduate of the 1906 class of Hope Hospital Training School for Nurses (forerunner of Purdue Fort Wayne School of Nursing), Irene Byron was among a new group of well-trained nurses empowered to take on larger professional roles.
After working as a private duty and Hope Hospital staff nurse, in 1913 she found her life s work as the single nurse for the Fort Wayne Anti-Tuberculosis Society. As part of the new national public health movement to defeat tuberculosis, the deadliest disease of the day, she cared for hundreds of patients in their homes and in a free clinic.