RememberingDr. Overton
Dear Sir:
It would be appreciatedif you could publish the following letter which I submitted toMr. Will Jackson.
Dear Mr. Jackson:
I was delighted to find on (Cayman Net News')the Internet site a few days ago your article entitled "LookingBack-Medical & Midwifery of the Past." Especially whenI saw my father's name mentioned.
I am the eldest daughter of George NormanDudley Overton M.D, J.P. who was the certified Medical Officerof the Cayman Islands (Grand Cayman, Cayman Brac and Little Cayman)from 1917-1936. Your article states that you were assured thatthere was never a certified doctor stationed in Grand Cayman upto the early 1920's. I respectfully disagree with that statement.
My parents had seven children. My sisterClaire and I were born in Washington, D.C., the others Rita, Grace,Norman, Ken and Bobby were all born and delivered by my fatherat the Government Medical Officer's residence on Elgin Avenuein Georgetown. Nurse's Clara Eden and Malvina McField assistedat different times with the deliveries.
My mother's name was Felicia WilhelminaWiseman Overton.
I remembered my father training many youngwomen to become nurses. A few were Sarah (Bella) Henning and starCreighton, and there were many more. Worthy of mention AltheaBodden McLaughlin who was trained by him and who later becamea qualified dispenser.
She is now retired from a position at thehospital in Georgetown. Until this day Althea sings my father'spraises, and gives thanks to him for her success.
I do not remember my father using the littlefour beds abandoned house you mentioned in your article as a hospital,but maybe he did. I do remember him sterilising his instrumentsand taking them along with his operating table, his nurse, BellaHenning, and Mr. Mallie McTaggart, his anaesthetist, in his littleDodge Roadster to patients' homes to perform various surgeriessuch as amputations, appendectomies, cataracts etc. I have oftensaid that he certainly had "chutzpah"- supreme self-confidenceto do so efficiently all that he did given the circumstances.
I could go on endlessly writing about thehistory of when Cayman was our home in the "good old days."It was wonderful! I still keep in touch with old friends in Cayman,and return to visit quite often. Many have suggested that I writea book giving my recollection of those days.
Last night I was thumbing through the May/June1999 Cayman Airways Magazine Horizons, and I read the Prologuefrom your book "Smoke Pot Days." The next time I amin Cayman, I hope to buy a copy. I also saw the photo of yourselfand your wife Sybil whom you so nicely admitted "turned yourlife around." What was her maiden name? Maybe I know her,or maybe she and her parents are familiar with the Overtons. Wouldany of your family have known us?
Doris Fulford