Kathleen Bragg

Native islander, Kathleen Bragg (1899-1975), was the daughter and granddaughter of Ocracoke Inlet pilots. In 1925 Kathleen graduated from the nursing school at Rocky Mount Hospital, and returned home to care for her family and neighbors. In those days there was no resident doctor on the island.

Kathleen Bragg, courtesy OPS

In addition to caring for the island's sick and infirm, Kathleen also delivered more than 100 babies.

In 1953 Kathleen began working as the Ocracoke School nurse. She spent Wednesdays at the school, often administering vaccine injections. As Alton Ballance writes in his book, Ocracokers, "high absenteeism was not uncommon on Wednesdays."

You can read more about Kathleen here: http://www.ocracokecurrent.com/86202.

Our latest Ocracoke Newsletter is Ellen Marie Cloud's first-person account of the Great Ocracoke Lighthouse Window Heist. You can read it here: http://www.villagecraftsmen.com/news012117.htm.