Mississippi Today
Jackson County selects Catholic nonprofit as Singing River hospital’s new owner
Jackson County selects Catholic nonprofit as Singing River hospital’s new owner
Jackson County’s Board of Supervisors announced Monday it chose Louisiana Catholic nonprofit Franciscan Missionaries of Our Lady Health System to purchase the Gulf Coast’s Singing River Health System.
The decision comes after an extensive proposal period in which potential buyers put in bids for the Mississippi hospital system. Singing River CEO Tiffany Murdock announced last year the 700-bed hospital system was seeking a buyer to put it on firmer footing for the future.
“This is an exciting day for Singing River Health System,” Murdock said in a statement. “Our future with the Franciscan Missionaries of Our Lady Health System ensures that Singing River will be able to meet the needs of our employees, patients and community members for years to come. Together, we will build on the strong foundation Singing River has established since we first originated as Jackson County Hospital in 1931.”
While hospitals across Mississippi came out of the pandemic in the red, Singing River’s finances were in decent shape, and it even grew its revenue in 2021. Murdock said she was pushing for a buyer while the system was an appealing investment, fearing the challenges in years to come.
“We’re coming at it now at a place of strength,” Murdock told a community group in the town of Hurley in August 2022. “And in five years, I can’t promise you the same thing.”
Hospitals have been facing increasing costs from labor to supplies. Rural Mississippi hospitals have been struggling to stay afloat. Singing River hopes that by teaming up with a larger system, they’ll be able to better trim costs because of the scale at which purchases are made.
While not in danger of shuttering its doors like other hospitals in the state, Singing River hasn’t been without its own challenges since seeking a buyer. Its Gulfport hospital recently suspended its labor and delivery services because of a physician staffing shortage.
The system says it wants to reopen obstetric care but it’s unclear when that will happen. Its last day of service is April 1.
In its announcements about acquisition, Singing River said the Franciscan Missionaries of Our Lady Health System is committed to “keeping care local, investing in our community and investing in our people.”
“We are excited about the possibilities for healthcare in our region and believe the Franciscan Missionaries of Our Lady Health System is the right choice,” Jackson Board of Supervisors President Ken Taylor said in a statement. “Fundamentally, they share our community values and have a mission to provide equal access to healthcare for all.”
The Catholic system already operates St. Dominic Memorial Hospital in Jackson and nine facilities throughout Louisiana. Its headquarters are in Baton Rouge.
Singing River has hospitals in Gulfport, Ocean Springs and Pascagoula and several walk-in clinics and other medical facilities across the Coast.
This article first appeared on Mississippi Today and is republished here under a Creative Commons license.
Mississippi Today
On this day in 1906
Jan. 22, 1906
Pioneer aviator and civil rights activist Willa Beatrice Brown was born in Glasgow, Kentucky.
While working in Chicago, she learned how to fly and became the first Black female to earn a commercial pilot’s license. A journalist said that when she entered the newsroom, “she made such a stunning appearance that all the typewriters suddenly went silent. … She had a confident bearing and there was an undercurrent of determination in her husky voice as she announced, not asked, that she wanted to see me.”
In 1939, she married her former flight instructor, Cornelius Coffey, and they co-founded the Cornelius Coffey School of Aeronautics, the first Black-owned private flight training academy in the U.S.
She succeeded in convincing the U.S. Army Air Corps to let them train Black pilots. Hundreds of men and women trained under them, including nearly 200 future Tuskegee Airmen.
In 1942, she became the first Black officer in the U.S. Civil Air Patrol. After World War II ended, she became the first Black woman to run for Congress. Although she lost, she remained politically active and worked in Chicago, teaching business and aeronautics.
After she retired, she served on an advisory board to the Federal Aviation Administration. She died in 1992. A historical marker in her hometown now recognizes her as the first Black woman to earn a pilot’s license in the U.S., and Women in Aviation International named her one of the 100 most influential women in aviation and space.
This article first appeared on Mississippi Today and is republished here under a Creative Commons license.
Mississippi Stories Videos
Mississippi Stories: Michael May of Lazy Acres
In this episode of Mississippi Stories, Mississippi Today Editor-at-Large Marshall Ramsey takes a trip to Lazy Acres. In 1980, Lazy Acres Christmas tree farm was founded in Chunky, Mississippi by Raburn and Shirley May. Twenty-one years later, Michael and Cathy May purchased Lazy Acres. Today, the farm has grown into a multi seasonal business offering a Bunny Patch at Easter, Pumpkin Patch in the fall, Christmas trees and an spectacular Christmas light show. It’s also a masterclass in family business entrepreneurship and agricultural tourism.
For more videos, subscribe to Mississippi Today’s YouTube channel.
This article first appeared on Mississippi Today and is republished here under a Creative Commons license.
Mississippi Today
On this day in 1921
Jan. 21, 1921
George Washington Carver became one of the first Black experts to testify before Congress.
His unlikely road to Washington began after his birth in Missouri, just before the Civil War ended. When he was a week old, he and his mother and his sister were kidnapped by night raiders. The slaveholder hired a man to track them down, but the only one the man could locate was George, and the slaveholder exchanged a race horse for George’s safe return. George and his brother were raised by the slaveholder and his wife.
The couple taught them to read and write. George wound up attending a school for Black children 10 miles away and later tried to attend Highland University in Kansas, only to get turned away because of the color of his skin. Then he attended Simpson College in Indianola, Iowa, before becoming the first Black student at what is now Iowa State University, where he received a Master’s of Science degree and became the first Black faculty member.
Booker T. Washington then invited Carver to head the Tuskegee Institute’s Agriculture Department, where he found new uses for peanuts, sweet potatoes, soybeans and other crops.
In the past, segregation would have barred Carver’s testimony before Congress, but white peanut farmers, desperate to convince lawmakers about the need for a tariff on peanuts because of cheap Chinese imports, believed Carver could captivate them — and captivate he did, detailing how the nut could be transformed into candy, milk, livestock feed, even ink.
“I have just begun with the peanut,” he told lawmakers.
Impressed, they passed the Fordney-McCumber Tariff of 1922.
In addition to this work, Carver promoted racial harmony. From 1923 to 1933, he traveled to white Southern colleges for the Commission on Interracial Cooperation. Time magazine referred to him as a “Black Leonardo,” and he died in 1943.
That same year, the George Washington Carver Monument complex, the first national park honoring a Black American, was founded in Joplin, Missouri.
This article first appeared on Mississippi Today and is republished here under a Creative Commons license.
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