Interview with Roger Egeberg, April 27, 1979

Interview Summary

Roger Egeberg was a young physician when he first heard Mary Breckinridge speak in Cleveland during the mid-1930s. After becoming Assistant Secretary for the U.S. Department of Health, Education, and Welfare in the late 1960s, he had occasion to work with the FNS and visited the operation in Kentucky at least twice. Egeberg terms the FNS a "beacon" in the development of the family nurse practitioner and the nurse-midwife, and he comments upon the attitude of American physicians toward the concept of midwifery. He discusses his acquaintance with Mary Breckinridge and with Helen Browne. Egeberg also explains the involvement of the FNS in various government programs.

Interview Keyword

Appalachian Region--Social conditions Country life Health facilities. Maternal health services. Midwives Rural conditions

Interview LC Subject

Breckinridge, Mary, 1881-1965 Cleveland (Ohio) Frontier Nursing Service, Inc. Hospitals--Administration Leslie County (Ky.) Medical care--Law and legislation Medical centers--Administration Midwifery Nursing Physicians Rural health services

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Interview Usage

Interviews may be reproduced with permission from Louie B. Nunn Center for Oral History, Special Collections, University of Kentucky Libraries.