Ivylyn Girardeau Explained

Ivylyn Girardeau
Birth Name:Ivylyn Lee Girardeau
Birth Date:October 16, 1900
Birth Place:Thomaston, Georgia, U.S.
Burial Place:Upson County, Georgia
Education:Agnes Scott College,
Tulane University
Occupation:medical doctor, missionary
Known For:missionary in India and Pakistan
Father:John Bohun Girardeau
Mother:Emma Trice Girardeau

Ivylyn Lee Girardeau (October 16, 1900 — September 11, 1987) was an American medical doctor and missionary in India and Pakistan.

Early life

Ivylyn Lee Girardeau was from Thomaston, Georgia, the daughter of John Bohun Girardeau and Emma Trice Girardeau.[1]

Ivylyn Girardeau attended Agnes Scott College, graduating in 1922,[2] and earned her medical degree in 1931, at Tulane University.[3] [4]

Career

Girardeau traveled to India with sponsorship from the Woman's Union Missionary Society (WUMS). She learned to speak Hindi and Urdu. From 1933 to 1945 she ran a fifty-bed facility, the Mary Ackerman Hoyt Memorial Hospital in Jhansi, mainly providing obstetric care.[5] [6]

In the United States, Girardeau served her internship at the Women and Children's Hospital in Boston. When she was in the United States on extended furloughs in the 1940s and 1950s, she toured and gave lectures about her work at churches and for civic clubs.[7] [8] [9] "It is the most fascinating country in the world — and potentially one of the most powerful or dangerous," she told Atlanta Constitution readers in 1945.[10] At age 72, she went to Pakistan and India again, as a medical relief worker. She was a pediatrician in Thomaston, and on the original staff of the Upson Regional Medical Hospital.

Personal life and legacy

Ivylyn Girardeau died in 1987, aged 86 years. Her gravesite is in Upson County.

Girardeau House, a Christian orphanage and school in Uganda, is named for Ivylyn Girardeau.[11] There are two folders of papers related to Ivylyn Girardeau's work in the Records of the Woman's Union Missionary Society, at the Billy Graham Center in Wheaton, Illinois.[12]

Notes and References

  1. Horry Frost Prioleau, Edward Lining Manigault, eds., Register of Carolina Huguenots, Vol. 2, Dupre - Manigault (2010): 851.
  2. Ivylyn Girardeau, "Medicine at Tulane" Agnes Scott Alumnae Quarterly (1927-1928): 7.
  3. https://www.upsoncountyga.org/DocumentCenter/View/432/Glenwood-Cemetery?bidId= Glenwood Cemetery Self-Guided Tour
  4. Evelyn Hanna, "Rural Georgia's Woman Doctor" Atlanta Constitution (September 13, 1948): 7. via Newspapers.com
  5. Yolande Gwin, "First Comfy Shoes in Five Years Bought by Missionary in Atlanta" Atlanta Constitution (May 27, 1938): 32. via Newspapers.com
  6. Evelyn Hanna, "Medical Missionary Reports on India" Atlanta Constitution (January 30, 1945): 7. via Newspapers.com
  7. https://www.newspapers.com/clip/22979186/ivylyn_girardeau_1945/ "Covenant Church Group"
  8. https://www.newspapers.com/clip/22979266/ivylyn_girardeau_1952/ "Dr. Girardeau BPW Speaker at Warrington"
  9. https://www.newspapers.com/clip/22971200/ivylyn_girardeau_1959/ "Mount Calvary Church"
  10. Evelyn Hanna, "More Concerning Conditions in India" Atlanta Constitution (January 31, 1945): 5. via Newspapers.com
  11. http://www.graceforeducation.com/the-girardeau-house/ "The Girardeau House"
  12. https://www2.wheaton.edu/bgc/archives/guides/379.htm Records of the Woman's Union Missionary Society