TURN ABOUT - Even the nurses were on the receiving end of the needle during moss inoculation ceremonies Monday in Protection. Here, Dr. Lyle G. Glenn gives Mrs. Edith Martin her final shot in the three-shot Salk series. The nurse, trying to be as brave as possible, failed to convince the little boy in the background that the whole thing was painless. (Photo by Jerry Clark, Beacon chief photographer).
The Protection Beacon, December 3, 195_. Blow Dealt Polio By 311 Sore Arms:
Protection ProtectedArticle by Hank Parkinson
Protection, Dec. 3. - Protection is now polio-protected - and there are 311 sore arms here to prove it.
This western Kansas town of some 900 persons - two-thirds or whom are over 40 - can claim the distinction of being the first community in the world to have every citizen under 40 years of age inoculated with the three-shot Salk vaccine series.
The mass inoculation, held in the high school gym, was old hat to every resident of this town. They lined up like veterans before the waiting doctors and nurses and most didn�t so much as blink an eye when "put to the needle."
Gala Climax These Kansans received their first shot April 2. The second go-around took place April 24. Monday climaxed the series and the whole town went all out to make the affair the gala event of the season.
Venetia Stevenson, beautiful 19-year-old motion picture starlet, and Basil O�Connor, president of the National Infantile Paralysis Foundation, were among the notables attending the day-long ceremony.
Protection loved the attention it received. One local merchant was heard to say "business booms every time we take a shot. I wish the series was six vaccinations instead of three."
Pamphlets were circulated to all farmers in the surrounding area, urging them to be present for the last inoculation. "This is the grand finale," the circular said, "let the maize harvest wait till tomorrow."
All stores along main street were closed. Everyone was in the school gym. Even the nurses took turns shooting each other.
Bob Webb, a wheelchair polio victim since he was 11, led the line to the vaccination table. "I could still contract the other two types," he said, smiling.
Also see:
Comanche County Hospital, Coldwater, Kansas.
Edith Marguerite (Cline) Martin, "Edith moved back to Coldwater and returned to her nursing career, going to work at the Comanche County Hospital in January 1954. She worked as a nurse 20 years at the Comanche County Hospital..." -- Comanche County History, Vol. 1, p. 522.
Thanks to Martin Sizemore for finding, transcribing and contributing the above news article and photo to this web site!
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