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

Ivylyn Girardeau
sepia-toned picture of a 21-year-old woman in graduation robe and mortarboard
in 1922 yearbook of Agnes Scott College
Born
Ivylyn Lee Girardeau

(1900-10-16)October 16, 1900
DiedSeptember 11, 1987(1987-09-11) (aged 86)
Burial placeUpson County, Georgia
EducationAgnes Scott College,
Tulane University
Occupation(s)medical doctor, missionary
Known formissionary in India and Pakistan
Parents
  • John Bohun Girardeau (father)
  • Emma Trice Girardeau (mother)

Early life

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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

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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[4] 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.[5] 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.[3] She was a pediatrician in Thomaston, and on the original staff of the Upson Regional Medical Hospital.[3]

Personal life and legacy

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Ivylyn Girardeau died in 1987, aged 86 years. Her gravesite is in Upson County.[3]

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]

References

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  1. ^ Horry Frost Prioleau, Edward Lining Manigault, eds., Register of Carolina Huguenots, Vol. 2, Dupre - Manigault (2010): 851. ISBN 9780557242665
  2. ^ Ivylyn Girardeau, "Medicine at Tulane" Agnes Scott Alumnae Quarterly (1927-1928): 7.
  3. ^ a b c d Glenwood Cemetery Self-Guided Tour, stop 12, page 6.
  4. ^ a b Evelyn Hanna, "Rural Georgia's Woman Doctor" Atlanta Constitution (September 13, 1948): 7. via Newspapers.com 
  5. ^ a b 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. ^ "Covenant Church Group" Atlanta Constitution (April 8, 1945): 26. via Newspapers.com 
  8. ^ "Dr. Girardeau BPW Speaker at Warrington" Pensacola News Journal (October 19, 1952): 35. via Newspapers.com 
  9. ^ "Mount Calvary Church" Elizabethtown Chronicle (August 6, 1959): 8. via Newspapers.com 
  10. ^ Evelyn Hanna, "More Concerning Conditions in India" Atlanta Constitution (January 31, 1945): 5. via Newspapers.com 
  11. ^ "The Girardeau House" Grace for Education website.
  12. ^ Records of the Woman's Union Missionary Society, Billy Graham Center, Wheaton IL.
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