January 19, 2015
For three days the board room at Marshall North has been turned into a gigantic photo album. Employees have circled the conference table laughing at the hairstyles of their coworkers years ago and sharing about others who are long gone. They supplied names for unmarked photos and many memories were shared during the process. One photo that drew a ton of giggles was taken in the mid- to late-1990s and featured Ken Bass and Lisa Reaves dressed as Fred Flintstone and Betty Rubble. Ken went so far as to try to sneak the picture into the back pocket of his scrubs and steal away with it before being caught. Ken said their costumes were part of a fundraiser held in 1996 or ‘97. Facilities Management Director Bill Smith was a dead ringer for Barney Rubble and Joby McCully, then dietary director, dressed the part of Wilma Flintstone. Another photo that was a big hit featured retirees Dwight Hayes and Ralph McCollum portraying The Blues Brothers. Dwight stopped by Tuesday to look at photos and said the pair played the duo over and over for hospital events way back when. “We were kind of running out of material,’’ he says. CEO Gary Gore says the Saturday Night Live wannabes were very popular. “No matter what the theme was the Blues Brothers made an appearance,” he says. Dwight worked at Marshall Medical for about 37 years. He put his photography hobby to work during his later years at Marshall North. Staff members joked that Dwight was either in every photograph or had taken it. Many folks got a kick out of looking at Gore as a young administrator. They referred to him as “a baby” and “just a kid,” as well as very slender. Gore informed everyone that he was not that young when he started the job – he had just turned 30. Betty Martin remembered very well the first time she saw Gore walk into the cafeteria at the old Guntersville Hospital before Marshall North opened. “I thought, ‘There’s no way that little boy can handle two hospitals,’’’ she recalled. “He was so young.” Betty distinctly remembers when the old hospital was shut down and patients were moved to the new one at North. The move was planned for a Saturday in hopes that employees would finish most of their work on Friday night. Every patient who could be discharged was sent home. They took a total of 44 people from Guntersville and Arab hospitals to brand new beds at North on the morning of Jan. 13, 1990. Betty, who is retired but still works in pathology, started work in April of 1976 and worked as a lab tech when the old hospital closed its doors. She recalls it being a sad occasion. “It was heartbreaking,” she remembers. “I was the one who closed the door on the Guntersville Hospital Lab. When I closed that door we shut the door on a lifetime, but we were excited to have a new building.” Mammographer Michelle Hicks was looking through old pictures when she spotted one that really hit close to home. It was a photo of her late grandparents, Elsie and Doyle Holloway of Arab. Mrs. Holloway was a hospital volunteer for at least 10 years, Michelle recalls. “I was surprised to find that picture,” she says.