Horne, Myrtle (1892–1969)

Utah nurse. Name variations: Myrtle Clara; Myrtle Carolyn. Born Myrtle Clara Swainston on March 24, 1892, in Cottonwood, Uintah County, Wyoming; died in Salt Lake City, Utah, of acute myocardial infarction, on December 3, 1969; daughter of Ebenezer James Swainston (a farmer and horticulturist) and Harriet Ann (Hughes) Swainston; attended grade school and high school in Wyoming; graduated L.D.S. Hospital School of Nursing, Salt Lake City, Utah, 1918; married Lyman Merrill Horne, M.D., January 3, 1923; children: Harriet Ann (b. June 22, 1924); twins Carolynn and Marilynn (b. March 29, 1926); Alice Merrill Horne (b. December 20, 1928); twins Robert Hughes and Richard Hughes (b. September 15, 1932); twins Jonathan Hughes and David Hughes (b. October 25, 1935).

Myrtle Horne received her R.N. degree in June of 1918, just in time to serve during the great influenza pandemic of that year. A trip to Hawaii to visit a friend from nursing school resulted in her appointment as superintendent of the Kapi'olani Hospital in Honolulu, where she worked until 1922 and learned to surf. She continued to work as a nurse after her marriage in 1923 to Lyman Horne, the first trained obstetrician-gynecologist in Utah, and was president of the Utah State Nurses Association from 1927 to 1930. From the early 1930s until 1952, Horne was a lecturer to groups of teenage girls on the topic of "maturation and femininity," much in demand by youth group leaders throughout the Salt Lake City region.

sources:

Andrew, Bishop Richard. Monument Park II Ward History, privately published.

Arrington, Leonard J. "The Influenza Epidemic of 1918–19 in Utah," in Utah Historical Quarterly. Vol 58, no. 2. Spring 1990.

Ogden Standard Examiner [Ogden, Utah]. Issues from November 2, 1918–December 31, 1918, addressing the flu epidemic.

Swainston family genealogy and manuscript history by Minnie Hinck.

Harriet Horne Arrington , women's biographer, Salt Lake City, Utah