OREGON DIVORCEE AGNES Anne âAnnieâ LeRoi arrived in Phoenix in the first few months of 1931 with her best friend and roommate, schoolteacher Hedvig âSammyâ Samuelson. They were climate refugees: Sammy had tuberculosis, and at the time the only cure for âconsumptionâ was a dry climate and rest.
Back then, many patients with TB waited until they were so far gone that the climate couldnât save them; essentially, they moved to Arizona to die. Sammy wasnât one of them; her case was mild. But, although she didnât know it, she, too, was moving to Arizona to die. She had less than nine months to live. So did Annie.