Florence “Mac” Thompson (1915−1995) arrived in 1938 and served as Public Health Nurse for 42 years. She was known as the “shot lady” or “needle lady,” who visited County schools to give shots for typhoid fever and other childhood illnesses. She also dispensed inoculations to adults at country schools, stores, and along country roads, where she would stop and set up a card table. Her goal was to help stamp out polio, and in the 1950s, the County had eight cases. When the County was without a doctor, she delivered babies along with the eight mid-wives she had trained. “Mac” earned a Masters Degree in Nursing, which also licensed her to perform many services normally performed by a doctor. According to her daughter, Becky, her mother often said, “I would rather stay in Clay County trying to make a living picking blackberries, rather than go somewhere else and make big bucks.” In 1994 she and Dr. Joe Padgett were greatly honored when the Clay County Health Department (in the Community Service Building) was dedicated to both of them.
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