The legacy of Dorothy Davis Cook.

Elliott, Susan E.

Too often the lives, contributions, and legacies of missionary nurses have been ignored in our mission histories. Here I wish to highlight the remarkable ministry and service of Reverend Sister Tutor Dorothy Davis Cook, Church of the Nazarene missionary nurse who served in Swaziland from 1940 to 1972. (1)

Modern nursing began with a call from God. According to Florence Nightingale's own testimony, "On February 7, 1837, God spoke to me and called me to His service." (2) A similar experience awaited the woman who would become known as the Mother of Swazi Nurses. On a Sunday afternoon in September 1928, sixteen-year-old Dorothy Davis heard the voice of God calling her to Africa. The key verse that day was Psalm 2:8--" Ask of me, and I shall give thee the heathen for thine inheritance, and the uttermost parts of the earth for thy possession." Nightingale did not know that in being obedient to God, she would change the health and well-being of the world. Dorothy did not know that day that her inheritance, her children, would be the Swazi women she raised and trained to be Christian nurses. (3)

Dorothy Fay Davis was born in Hugo, Colorado, on March 29, 1912. Raised in a Christian home, she spent the majority of her childhood in Alhambra, California. She graduated from Pasadena College (now Point Loma Nazarene University) in 1934. A statement under her senior photo reads, "Pasadena College has given many talented people to the mission field. This year we are proud to have one who has consecrated her life to this cause." (4)

Following her Pasadena years, Davis continued her education at the Nazarene Samaritan Hospital in Nampa, Idaho. Established in 1920 and since closed in 1951, Samaritan Hospital opened for the purpose of preparing nurses for medical missions. Davis graduated from Samaritan in 1938 and then completed her bachelor of science degree at Northwest Nazarene College, also in Nampa. She was appointed to Nazarene missionary service on November 22, 1939. (5)

Swaziland

After six weeks at sea crossing the Atlantic, which was then a World War II battlefield, Davis arrived in Africa on June 4, 1940. Her first year of service was in the north of Swaziland. The village of Endzingini (sometimes spelled Indzingini) is where Harmon Schmelzenbach had first opened the African missionary program of the Church of the Nazarene and where missionary nurse Lillian Cole built the first Nazarene hospital. In addition to seeing clinic patients and caring for orphans, Davis began learning the Zulu language--and the importance of prayer in a missionary's life. (6)

The Swazi had migrated to this region over 300 years earlier. The Kingdom of Swaziland is a small country (6,704 square miles), with the borders determined by the British and Dutch colonialists, the Zulu War, and the Boer War. King Sobhuza II was Ngwenyama (the Lion) of Swaziland from 1921 to 1982, keeping the nation and culture of the Swazi alive. Upon the request of the king, the Nazarene hospital had been moved from Endzingini to the city of Bremersdorp (now Manzini), which was more centrally located in the country. There the missionaries recognized the value of training nationals to care for their own. The first Swazi trainee was pulled from the hospital garden to be an extra pair of hands in surgery. She did so well that a nurse's aide program was initiated. Missionary nurse Jennie Evelyn Fox expanded the program to four years and added basic midwifery. (7)

Davis felt the call to teach nursing and so was transferred to the Raleigh Fitkin Memorial Hospital and Nazarene Nursing School in Bremersdorp to serve as a "sister" (i.e., registered nurse) and later take leadership of the Swazi nursing program. The king was very supportive of Davis's service to his people. However, Swaziland was also a member, though unwillingly, of the British Empire until 1968 and subject to British standards for the nursing profession. These standards influenced both Davis's own further education and the nursing regulatory process that she helped formulate. (8)

Building the Foundation

In early 1943 Davis placed herself on night duty in the hospital so that her mornings and evenings would be free for teaching and for clinic visits. She always integrated nursing education with Christian education. Mildred Dlamini, a student in Davis's first class, recalled, "Sister Davis, she worked very hard with first year students that come.... I do thank Sister Dorothy Davis, what she teach us besides nursing, what she teach us about God." (9)

During the ensuing years, Davis expanded her credentials both in nursing and in ministry. Her professional growth and development included learning about, and then teaching about, new diseases and causes of ill-health common to Swaziland. These included syphilis (the most common cause of morbidity and mortality), malaria, bilharziasis, leprosy, tuberculosis, trauma (from drinking, fights, and automobile crashes), burns from cooking fires and lightning, malnutrition, and pregnancy-related complications. In an effort to remain current with advancing nursing science knowledge, Davis subscribed to the American Journal of Nursing. (10)

In 1945 Davis completed all requirements in Zulu study. In 1946 she became a certified nurse midwife, thus meeting a British requirement. Believing that she should train with Bantu nurses in the care of Bantu patients (Bantus were, and are, the majority in the region), Davis resisted pressure to train in a white hospital and completed her midwifery training at McCord-Zulu Hospital in Durban, South Africa. Because of her accomplished midwifery skills, she would later be called upon to deliver very high-risk patients in homes and in the hospital. (11)

In focused preparation for serving as the principal of the Nazarene nursing school, Davis next completed her sister tutor training in London, England, in 1951. This too was a requirement of the British government. Back in Swaziland, creative teaching was a necessity for Davis. She stated, "I always took some of the nurses with me and used it as a teaching point. They always seemed keen to learn so that wasn't the problem. Lack of equipment would be a great problem. My first classroom was next to the morgue. When someone died in the hospital during the night, we couldn't have class in that little shack. It was just really a shack with a partition between us, nothing over the top. So every morning I never knew where I was going to teach. Sometimes we taught outside under the trees and sometimes we taught in the wards." (12)

Davis remembered fondly one humorous teaching moment. It was not the Swazi custom to wash one's hair. Almost immediately after patients accepted Jesus Christ as Savior, however, they commonly wanted to have their hair washed. Once, upon the conversion of a female patient, Davis decided to use the moment as an opportunity to teach bedside bathing and hair washing. As she proceeded to wash the woman's beehive hair, Davis discovered a cache of pills--the woman had hidden all the pills she had been given to take in her mass of dirty hair! Even though she had not taken any of the prescribed medications, the woman had been improving daily. (13)

To aid her teaching endeavors, Davis wrote four nursing texts, which became the gold standard for Swaziland and surrounding countries. As the professionalism of nursing in Swaziland grew under Davis's direction, so too did the complexity of science and procedures within these texts. Believing in nursing as a lifelong learning process, Davis became the first editor of the Nazarene Nursing News. This publication gave Swazi nurses the opportunity to contribute articles and aided graduate continuing education. Davis also coauthored the 1965 Swaziland Nurse Practice Act, legislation that was so well written that it was not revised until 1999. In addition, she started the Swaziland Nursing Journal, and in 1975 she wrote Nursing in Swaziland, a historical booklet on the regulatory process followed in establishing nursing education and practice in Swaziland. (14)

While Davis was teaching nursing in Swaziland, she was also building a spiritual foundation by preaching and opening churches. By 1948 she had completed all study and experience requirements and was ordained as an elder in the Church of the Nazarene while on furlough in California. Back in Swaziland she held services in the hospital wards and daily in the nursing school chapel. For a time she was in charge of all Nazarene Sunday schools in the country. Nurse Hope Dlamini reported that before Davis and students opened the antenatal and child welfare clinic for the day, Davis held a service. (15) Nurse Martha Zubuko, former student of Davis and now a pastor's wife at the Enculwini church, clinic, and school started by Davis, stated: "Dorothy was a preacher. She was not only a nurse, she was a preacher. She conducted services in the morning and used to attend the prayer and fasting services. On Sundays ... she has to go outside and take some nurses outside to go and preach. And I was one of those whom she helped spiritually." (16)

Davis placed herself in a unique position in her effort to share Jesus Christ one-on-one with her students. During the majority of her service years she lived in the nurses' home with the students. By 1951 there were thirty-one nursing, midwifery, and nurse's aide students living in the home. She shared common eating and bathroom facilities with her students, her only private space being an eight-by-twelve-foot bedroom with fireplace and window. In the home she taught them about personal hygiene, the function of a broom, how electricity works, and more about a personal relationship with Jesus Christ. Her home lessons included the moral laws of God. Davis's greatest heartbreak was when a student became pregnant and had to be dismissed from the home and school. The twenty-four-hour-a-day relationship between Davis and her students lasted until 1966. (17)

Establishing the Legacy

Davis's reputation as a quality nurse educator extended beyond the borders of Swaziland. She was appointed to serve on the High Commission Territories Nursing Council, the British governing body for Swaziland, Basutoland (Lesotho), and Bechuanaland (Botswana). The council early recognized the Nazarene Nursing School as the first in the territories to meet all standards established for nursing education. With Davis as sister tutor, the next step was to raise the bar so that Nazarene nursing graduates would be eligible for state registration. Eva Manzini Mthethwa was the first Swazi nurse to pass all exams and become registered in Swaziland and later was the first Swazi to be promoted to sister. (18)

The stories of changed lives through the ministry and service of Davis through Christian nursing education and the influence these lives have had on the physical and spiritual health of their nation are many. Joyce Viakazi Mamba entered Raleigh Fitkin Memorial Hospital (RFM) at the age of three, abandoned by her mother, a traditional healer. She was raised by the nurses and then became a nurse. She later studied nursing education at the Royal College of Nursing in London, returning to develop new programs within the Nazarene Nursing School. Amy Joyce Manthata was born at the Nazarene Endzingini Mission Station. She graduated from Davis's program and became the first Swazi sister to be promoted to matron of RFM. (19)

Davis went against the recommendation of the mission's council when she accepted physically disabled Maggie Makubu into the nursing program. In Maggie, Davis saw the potential of a good nurse, and she was not disappointed. After Maggie completed her schooling with Davis, Nurse Makubu received a scholarship from the World Health Organization and studied public health in India. She was appointed the first principal and program developer of the Swaziland Institute of Health. Later she became the first Swazi nurse to earn her Ph.D. and the first to be elected to the Swazi Senate. Dr. Makubu was very impressed with Davis's making time in her heavy teaching load to spread the Word of God. She made sure she followed Davis's example, doing the same at the government school. (20)

Nester Themsisile Shongwe (class of 1966) was appointed Swaziland's chief nursing officer. She credits Davis for the government nursing school, for Davis's graduates hold all faculty and leadership positions. Nurse Elizabeth Mndebele (class of 1964) also works for the government. She remembers Davis training the students to be multipurpose nurses where there was no doctor and to view teaching nursing not as a job but as a calling. Davis saw in Nurse Mndebele the potential to teach and gave her a typewriter so she could learn a new skill in preparation for that role. Nurse Mndebele has now trained over 3,000 Swazi laypersons from across the country to serve as community-based health workers. (21)

Davis's legacy has been felt in many nations. Former students have completed graduate studies in England, India, Australia, and across the United States. This researcher is part of her international legacy. What I learned, both through short-term missionary nursing service in Swaziland and through research for this article, has led to the degrees and other credentials needed to share the Gospel in the setting of professional nursing and medical conferences on five continents.

Going Home

Dorothy Davis dared to do the impossible and became the Mother of Swazi Nurses. She had adopted the women of Swaziland, but finally in 1972 it was time to leave them to carry on. She had actively protected, nurtured, and trained the girls, some of them from birth, who would be registered nurses. She comforted and guided them through their homesickness, their study and romances, their successes and failures. She worked hard to instill in them a sense of self-esteem, self-worth, and a strong moral character. Davis prayed for and with each of her children, mentoring them in biblical ways and into a personal relationship with Jesus Christ. For her service, by order of Queen Elizabeth II, she was honored with the Member of the British Empire award. Also for her service, an entire issue of the 1971 Swaziland Nursing Journal was dedicated and devoted to her. The Dorothy Fay Davis Silver Medal was established to annually reward the nursing student from the three territories who received the highest score on final examinations. Finally, she received the Church of the Nazarene Distinguished Service Award. (22)

The exact date of her Swaziland farewell party is not known, but a photo confirms that "Mother of Swazi Nurses" was written on the cake, which was shaped like a Nightingale lamp. A student presented the following farewell speech:

 Miss Davis, we are very grateful to God who called you to Africa,
 to your parents who willingly offered you to God's service, and
 above all your obedience to the will of God. You have held out this
 light to the people of Swaziland. They have seen your good works
 and are glorifying God.

 To Miss Dorothy Davis Sister Tutor, to show appreciation for
 her faithfulness in the work, for her loyalty to the hospital and
 her coworkers, to the one who had the riches of earth and fame pass
 her by that we gain eternal life. All that we are and hope to be, we
 owe to Mother Davis. (23)

Saying good-bye was most difficult for Dorothy. Was she really going home, or was she leaving home? She recorded her speech that day in her journal.

 Finally Farewell. I thank my God for you all every time I think of
 you; and every time I pray for you, I pray with joy, because of the
 way in which you have helped me in my work of the gospel from
 the very first day until now. And so I am sure o f this: that God,
 who began this good work in you will carry it on until it is
 finished in the Day of Christ Jesus. You are always in my heart!
 (Philippians 1:3-7).

 I came. I came young and inexperienced. I came to give my all
 without reservation. I may have given something to you. You
 have given me more. Forever I am in debt to you.

 I have lived. I have lived among you, been one with you, and
 in living have found complete fulfillment and supreme joy. You
 are my children. I delivered some of you. Most of you have been
 in my classes.

 Thank you for loving me, for understanding my strange
 foreign ways, for your patience, for your kindness. Today I am
 rich because of you. You are my inheritance.

 I am going. The time for my departure is at hand. I have
 finished the work God gave me to do in Swaziland. I wish I could
 have done better. However, it is a great comfort to me to know that
 you have grown up and that the work is in good and efficient
 hands.

 Your Mother and your Teacher, Dorothy Davis. (24)

Davis returned to Southern California. There she worked for a period of time as a hospital supervisor and lived at Casa Robles, the Nazarene missionary retirement center. In 1984 her life again changed, and she inherited yet another family, when she married Ralph Cook, a retired missionary. Unfortunately, they had only seven years together.

Davis lives out her life in falling health only a few miles from where she was raised in Alhambra, California. She continues to be a prayer warrior. She wonders why anyone would want to know her story, and she wonders why God has not yet taken her home to heaven, where she longs to go.

Notes

(1.) Sources for this study include three interviews with Dorothy Davis Cook, as well as interviews with other missionary and Swazi nurses. Dorothy gave me full access to her personal journals, diplomas, transcripts, writings, photo album, home movies, and collection of religious study resources. Other documents were collected from the official archives of the Church of the Nazarene in Kansas City, Missouri; Northwest Nazarene College (now University) in Nampa, Idaho; and the Church of the Nazarene Regional Office in Florida, South Africa. Documents were also provided by the archives of the Royal College of Nursing in Edinburgh, Scotland.

(2.) Copied from the Florence Nightingale Museum, 2 Lambeth Palace Road, London.

(3.) Dorothy Davis Cook, interview by author, February, 28, 1998, Alhambra, California. Her well-worn King James Version Bible has Psalm 2:8 underlined, with a marginal note "September, 1928--called."

(4.) Dorothy Davis Cook, interview by author, March 3-4, 1999, Alhambra; Evelyn Sanner (Dorothy's sister), interview by author, March 3, 1999, Alhambra; La Sierra, 1933 (Pasadena, Calif.: Pasadena College, [1933]), p. 33.

(5.) "Dorothy Fay Davis Samaritan Hospital Summary Sheet" (October 4, 1938), Northwest Nazarene University Archives, Nampa, Idaho; Samaritan Hospital School of Nursing Diploma and Northwest Nazarene College Diploma, June 1, 1938, personal papers of Dorothy Davis Cook; Dorothy Davis Cook interview by author, October 8, 1999, Alhambra; General Board of the Church of the Nazarene, "Contract for Foreign Missionary Work," November 22, 1939, personal papers of Dorothy Davis Cook.

(6.) Dorothy Davis Cook, personal journal, 1940; Lydia Wilke Howard, interview by author, February 28, 1998, Alhambra. Howard, also a missionary nurse, traveled to Swaziland with Davis. Readers may gain further information about Nazarene missions and about other missionary nurses in Swaziland from the following volumes, all published in Kansas City by the Nazarene Publishing House: L. Chapman, Africa, O Africa (1945); E. Cole, Give Me This Mountain (1959); J. Gardner, The Promise (1992); and H. Schmelzenbach III, Schmelzenbach of Africa (1971).

(7.) U.S. Department of State, Bureau of Public Affairs, Swaziland (Washington, D.C.: Government Printing Office, 1985), p. 1; J. Middleton and A. Rassom, eds., Encyclopedia of World Cultures, vol. 9, Africa and the Middle East (Boston: G. K. Hall, 1984); J. Olson, The Peoples of Africa (Westport, Conn.: Greenwood Press, 1996); D. Hynd, Glasgow, letter to Brother Anderson, Kansas City, January 26, 1925, Church of the Nazarene Archives, Kansas City, Missouri; S. Hynd, A Pictorial History of Manzini Nazarene Mission (Florida, Transvaal: Nazarene Publishing House, 1975), p. 6; Dorothy Davis, Nursing in Swaziland (Florida, Transvaal: Nazarene Publishing House, 1975), pp. 16-17.

(8.) Davis, Nursing in Swaziland; "Kingdom of Swaziland--Ceremonies on 24th, 25th April 1967," Church of the Nazarene Africa Regional Office Archives, Florida, South Africa (hereafter Regional Archives).

(9.) Dorothy Davis, Bremersdorp, letter to Dear Friends, July 28, 1943, Regional Archives; Mildred Dlamini, interview by author, August 9, 1999, Manzini, Swaziland.

(10.) Davis, Nursing in Swaziland, p. 42; D. Drew, Mbabane, letter to the Medical Superintendent, Raleigh Fitkin Memorial Hospital, Bremersdorp, September 9, 1945, Regional Archives.

(11.) Church of the Nazarene (Africa District) Course of Study in Zulu Language Certificate, October 5, 1945, and McCord Zulu Bantu School for Nurse Midwives Diploma, April 30, 1946, personal papers of Dorothy Davis Cook.

(12.) Sister Tutor Diploma, University of London, having taken training at the Royal College of Nursing, September 5, 1951; Dorothy Davis Cook, "When God Calls" (n.d.), personal papers of Dorothy Davis Cook.

(13.) Dorothy Davis Cook, interview by author, October 8, 1999.

(14.) Below see list of writings by Dorothy Davis Cook; Swaziland Government Health Department, The Nurses and Midwives Act (1965); Nester Thembisile Shongwe, interview by author, August 9, 1999, Mbabane, Swaziland.

(15.) Dorothy Davis Cook, interview by author, October 8, 1999; Church of the Nazarene Certificate of Ordination, May 28, 1948; J. Penn, "Rev. Dorothy Davis," Swaziland Nursing Journal 1, no. 5 (1971): 10, personal papers of Dorothy Davis Cook; H. Dlamini, "My Journey to Mafuteni," Nazarene Nursing News 1, no. 2 (1950): 3, Regional Archives.

(16.) Martha Zubuko, interview by author, August 8, 1999, Manzini, Swaziland.

(17.) Dorothy Davis Cook, interviews by author, February 28, 1998, March 3-4, 1999, and October 8, 1999; Elizabeth Mndebele, interview by author, August 10, 1999, Manzini, Swaziland.

(18.) Davis, Nursing in Swaziland, pp. 57-58.

(19.) Ibid., 58-61.

(20.) Maggie Makubu, interview by author, August 9, 1999, Mbabane, Swaziland; "Association News," Swaziland Nursing Journal 1, no. 3 (1971): 2-3.

(21.) Nester Themsisile Shongwe, interview by author, August 9, 1999, Mbabane, Swaziland; Elizabeth Mndebele, interview by author, August 10, 1999, Manzini, Swaziland.

(22.) F. Edmonds, Mbabane, letter to D. Davies [sic], Manzini, November 18, 1965, and F. Lloyd, Mbabane, letter to Dear Miss Davis, Manzini, January 1, 1966; D. Hynd, "Sister Dorothy Davis Retires," Swaziland Nursing Journal 1, no. 5 (1971): 9; J. Molapo, Maseru, letter to Davis, October 8, 1973; Dorothy Davis, personal journal, April 21, 1974, to May 1974, personal papers, scrapbook of Dorothy Davis Cook; Dorothy Fay Davis, Temple City, letter to My dear friends, September 1974; and "Distinguished Service Award to Dorothy Davis Cook," certificate, April 29, 1977, personal papers of Dorothy Davis Cook.

(23.) Unknown Swazi student nurse farewell speech to Davis (n.d.), personal papers, scrapbook of Dorothy Davis Cook.

(24.) D. Davis, "Finally Farewell," Swaziland Nursing Journal 1, no. 5 (1971): 2, and personal journal of Dorothy Davis Cook.

Selected Bibliography Works by Dorothy Davis Cook

1943 Nursing Procedures. Bremersdorp, Swaziland: Raleigh Fitkin Memorial Hospital.

1953 (with E. Mthethwa) Nursing Procedures. 2d ed. Bremersdorp, Swaziland: Shirley Memorial Press.

1959 Nursing Procedures Manual. Roodepoort, Transvaal: Roodepoort Mission Press.

1971 Nursing Procedures Manual. 4th ed. Manzini, Swaziland: Shirley Press.

1975 Nursing in Swaziland. Florida, Traansvaal: Nazarene Publishing House.

Works About Dorothy Davis Cook

Elliott, Susan E. "Missionary Nurse Dorothy Davis Cook, 1940-1972: 'Mother of Swazi Nurses.'" Ph.D. diss., University of San Diego, 2000.

Susan E. Elliott is a certified Family and Women's Health Nurse Practitioner and Assistant Professor of Nursing at California State University, Los Angeles. Through the Church of the Nazarene, she has provided health care in Swaziland, Zambia, Kenya, Russia, Venezuela, Panama, El Salvador, Guatemala, and the Dominican Republic.