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The Journal-News is committed to coverage of the local community — from schools and businesses to residents and nonprofit groups. Each Sunday, reporter Rick McCrabb brings you the stories of the people, places and events that make our community unique.
Some people, like puzzle pieces, are made to fit in a certain position.
Dolores Howard was cut out to be a nurse.
When she was 7, her 5-year-old sister, Jean Wilson, caught pneumonia and her temperature spiked to 106. Her parents, Alonzo and Pauline Wilson, of Trenton, called for a nurse home visit.
After seeing the medical attention her sick sister received, Dolores chose her future career, even before she was out of first grade.
“All I wanted to be was a nurse,” Howard said recently while sitting in her living room. “I stuck to that.”
She certainly did.
Howard, who celebrated her 90th birthday last week, spent more than half of her life caring for others, and it’s also how she met her future husband. More on that later.
After graduating from Trenton High School in 1944, she enrolled in a nursing program at Middletown Hospital that was supported by the U.S. government because there was a shortage of nurses during World War II. The government gave the nursing students a $30-a-month allowance, a price that doubled if they made it to their senior year. She graduated in 1947, then took additional nursing courses at the University of Dayton.
While a nurse at Middletown Hospital, she cared for Ashland Howard, who fell and broke his back while working at Armco. That’s when she met Ashland’s brother, Denzil Howard. He joked that Dolores checked on his brother several times each shift, when in fact, she was more interested in Denzil’s heart.
“She chased me until I had to give up,” Denzil said.
These two started dating, and married on May 15, 1948.
“She’s wonderful,” said Denzil, 92.
“We grew old together,” Dolores said. “It’s not all rosy but we’ve done really well.”
That brought a smile to her face.
“I was in charge as a nurse and I’m still in charge,” she said, quietly. “But don’t tell him that.”
After 68 years, he probably already knows. They have no secrets, no stories they haven’t shared.
Denzil served in the U.S. Marines during WWII from 1942-45, then joined Armco the following year and worked there for 40 years.
His wife worked at Middletown Hospital, later for Drs. Gordon Smith and James Anderson in Monroe. After that she worked as the Director of Nurses at Garden Manor Nursing Home, followed by Otterbein and Mount Pleasant.
That’s something like 50 years as a nurse.
“I’m a tough old bird,” she said.
She also taught Sunday school at Towne Boulevard Church of God and Blue Ball Presbyterian Church. Even though her health won’t allow her to regularly attend church, she said some of her friends still call and ask her for prayer.
The Howards tried to have children, but each attempt ended in miscarriage. They eventually adopted two boys, Greg, 63, and Geoff, 59. They were always open to their sons about adoption.
“The best two parents anyone could ever have,” said Greg, who lives in Heath, Ohio, and visits his parents monthly. “They’ve done everything right, that’s why they’re still around.”
Until recently, Greg never heard the story of his upbringing before he was adopted. When the Howards visited him, they were told they had to wait four days until the adoption could be final. But Greg, then 8 months old, was extremely sick and malnourished. They told the doctor they didn’t want to wait.
They wanted Greg that day.
“He would have been dead in four days,” his mother said.
No one argued with the woman.
They must have known she was a nurse.
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