Orleana Hawks Puckett

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Orleana Hawks Puckett (c. 1844 – 1938) was an American midwife in the mountains of Patrick and Carroll County, Virginia. Although never documented, it is said she helped deliver more than 1,000 babies, and never lost a mother or a child.^{[citation needed]} In 2012, Puckett was posthumously honored as one of the Library of Virginia's "Virginia Women in History".^[1]

Life

Puckett served as a midwife from 1889 until 1938, a year before she died. She started being a midwife after she herself had lost 24 children. Reasons for these deaths are unclear; some say she or her husband murdered them,^[2] but a more likely reason is that she had a disease that affected the baby, like Rh hemolytic disease.^[1] Most of her children were stillborn, and if they did live, they only survived for a few days. Even though she was unable successfully to have children, or maybe because of that, she decided to assist her neighbors in Carroll County during childbirth. She was almost 50 years old when she started her “practice”, on a completely voluntarily basis.^[1] The last delivery she assisted was that of Maxwell Hawks, on August 30, 1938.^[3]

Name

Since Puckett herself was illiterate, the spelling of her first name is uncertain. In 1913, when she applied for a pension because her husband had served in the Confederate Army, the notary filled in "Orleana". Some of the different names are Orlean, Orlena, Aulina or even Pauline.^[1]

Legacy

Her last home was a tiny one-room wood cabin hardly larger than an average dining room; it has been preserved by the National Park Service and may be seen along the Blue Ridge Parkway at mile 189.9.^[4]

The Orelena Hawks Puckett Institute in Asheville, North Carolina continues her legacy to care for mother and child. They promote and try to strengthen the development of child, parents, and family.^[5]

In 2018 the Virginia Capitol Foundation announced that Puckett's name would be included on the Virginia Women's Monument's glass Wall of Honor.^[6]

References

^ ^a ^b ^c ^d "Virginia Women in History: Orelena Hawks Puckett". Library of Virginia. Retrieved 4 March 2015.
^ Smith, Karen Cecil. Orlean Puckett: The Life of a Mountain Midwife, 1844-1939. Winston-Salem: John F. Blair Pub, 2003. Print.
^ Berrier Jr., Ralph (16 August 2007). "Mountain of a midwife". The Roanoke Times. Retrieved 31 May 2016.
^ "Orlean Puckett". U.S. National Park Service. Retrieved 4 April 2022.
^ "Orelena Hawks Puckett Institute". Idealist. Retrieved 4 April 2022.
^ "Wall of Honor". Virginia Women's Monument Commission. Retrieved 3 April 2022.

External links

Puckett's biography at the Library of Virginia

Virginia Women in History

2000–2009

2000	Ella Graham Agnew Mary Julia Baldwin Margaret Brent Willa Cather Jennie Dean Sarah Lee Fain Ellen Glasgow Dolley Madison Pocahontas Clementina Rind Lila Meade Valentine Maggie L. Walker
2001	Rosa Dixon Bowser Elizabeth Campbell Thomasina Jordan Elizabeth Keckley Theresa Pollak Sally Louisa Tompkins Elizabeth Van Lew Edith Wilson
2002	Rebecca Adamson Janie Porter Barrett Patsy Cline Hannah Lee Corbin Christine Darden Lillian Ward McDaniel Mary-Cooke Branch Munford Jessie M. Rattley
2003	Nancy Astor Pearl Bailey Anna Whitehead Bodeker Mary Ann Elliott Annabelle Ravenscroft Gibson Jenkins Frances Benjamin Johnston Anne Dobie Peebles Annie Bannister Spencer
2004	Grace Arents Cockacoeske Katie Couric Anne Makemie Holden Mary Draper Ingles Sarah Garland Boyd Jones Annie Snyder Martha Washington
2005	Clara Leach Adams-Ender Caitlyn Day Bessie Blount Griffin Mary Johnston Barbara Johns Powell Lee Smith Mary Belvin Wade
2006	Kate Waller Barrett Marie Majella Berg John-Geline MacDonald Bowman Benita Fitzgerald-Brown Grace Hopper Mary Tyler Freeman Cheek McClenahan G. Anne Richardson Mary Virginia Terhune
2007	Mary Willing Byrd Maybelle Carter Laura Lu Scherer Copenhaver Mary Alice Franklin Hatwood Futrell Mary Jeffery Galt Sheila Crump Johnson Opossunoquonuske Camilla Williams
2008	Frances Culpeper Berkeley Lucy Goode Brooks Providencia Velazquez Gonzalez Elizabeth B. Lacy Sharyn McCrumb P. Buckley Moss Isabel Wood Rogers Edith Turner
2009	Pauline Adams Caroline Bradby Cook Claudia Emerson Drew Gilpin Faust Joann Hess Grayson Mary Randolph Virginia Randolph Mary Sue Terry

2010–2019

2010	Mollie Holmes Adams Ethel Furman Edythe C. Harrison Janis Martin Kate Mason Rowland Jean Miller Skipwith Queena Stovall Marian Van Landingham
2011	Lucy Addison Eleanor Bontecou Emily White Fleming Pearl Fu Lillian Lincoln Bessie Niemeyer Marshall Felicia Warburg Rogan Elizabeth Henry Campbell Russell
2012	Susie May Ames Monica Beltran Christiana Burdett Campbell Betty Sams Christian Elizabeth Peet McIntosh Orelena Hawks Puckett Judith Shatin Alice Jackson Stuart
2013	Mary C. Alexander Louise Archer Elizabeth Ambler Brent Carrington Ann Compton JoAnn Falletta Cleo Powell Inez Pruitt Eva Mae Fleming Scott
2014	Mary Berkeley Minor Blackford Naomi Silverman Cohn Elizabeth Ashburn Duke Rachel Findlay Christine Herter Kendall Mildred Loving Debbie Ryan Stoner Winslett
2015	Nancy Melvina Caldwell Nikki Giovanni Ruth Coles Harris Dorothy Shoemaker McDiarmid Rebekah Dulaney Peterkin Vivian Pinn Elizabeth Bray Allen Smith Stith Karenne Wood
2016	Flora D. Crittenden Mary Elizabeth Nottingham Day Sarah A. Gray Edwilda Gustava Allen Isaac Katherine Johnson Ana Ines Barragan King Betty Masters Meyera Oberndorf
2017	Doris Crouse-Mays Corazon Sandoval Foley Nora Houston Cynthia Eppes Hudson Mary Virginia Jones Louise Harrison McCraw Undine Smith Moore Martha Rollins
2018	Gaye Todd Adegbalola Rita Dove Isabella Gibbons Marii Kyogoku Hasegawa Kay Coles James Barbara Kingsolver Mary Aydelotte Rice Marshall Temperance Flowerdew Yeardley
2019	Sharifa Alkhateeb Queen Ann Claudia Lane Dodson India Hamilton Georgeanna Seegar Jones Ona Maria Judge Lucy Randolph Mason Kate Peters Sturgill

2020–2029

2020	Pauline Adams Fannie Bayly King Elizabeth Dabney Langhorne Lewis Sophie G. Meredith Josephine Mathes Norcom Mary Elizabeth Pidgeon Ora Brown Stokes Lila Meade Valentine Maggie Lena Mitchell Walker
2021	Krista N. Jones Lerla G. Joseph Lillie Louise Boone Lucas Evelyn Reid Syphax

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