Verdelle Brim Bellamy became a pioneer in nursing, but she never wanted any limelight.
Amid the civil rights protests of the 1960s, Bellamy quietly joined the ranks of students who broke racial barriers in colleges around the South.
In 1963 – the year of the March on Washington and when four girls were killed in a church bombing in her hometown of Birmingham, Bellamy became one of the first two black students to graduate from Emory University, where she received a master’s degree in nursing from the Nell Hodgson Woodruff School of Nursing.
When the media got wind of her milestone, she refused interviews, saying other students accepted at Emory did not merit a press conference and neither did she.
“She never put herself out front. She wanted to be treated as any other student,” said her son Michael Bellamy of Atlanta. “She was always lifting other people.”
Bellamy of Atlanta died April 22 at the age of 89. Her funeral was May 2 at Christian Fellowship Baptist Church in College Park.
Born on March 15, 1926, Bellamy learned early to focus on goals and not obstacles while growing up in Birmingham.
“I had a strong mother and grandmother who taught us the basic Christian principles,” Bellamy once said during an awards ceremony. “And they told me I could be anything I wanted to be with hard work, determination, faith, and integrity.”
In 1944, she graduated from A.H. Parker High School for Colored Pupils, one of few high schools for black students in the South at the time. With an enrollment of more than 3,700 students back then, it was known as “the largest high school for Negroes in the world.”
In 1947, she earned a nursing diploma at the Grady Memorial Hospital Municipal Training School for Colored Nurses in Atlanta. She married Monroe Bellamy that same year, and they had one child. She earned a bachelor’s degree at Tuskegee Institute (now University) in 1958.
Bellamy was working as a Grady nursing school instructor before going to Emory, one of several groundbreaking achievements during her career.
During her 35-year tenure with the Atlanta VA Medical Center she became the hospital’s first black administrator when she was hired as associate chief of nursing for geriatric services. She developed and implemented policies for the 120-bed long-term care unit that became a model for VA hospitals around the country. She retired in 1998, after rising to chief of long-term care nursing.
Bellamy also was known as a strong advocate for veterans nursing care in Georgia and nationwide. She served as a board member, secretary and vice president of the Nurses Organization of Veterans Affairs. In 1974, Gov. Jimmy Carter appointed her as the first African-American member of the Georgia Board of Nursing.
“As an African-American, she was the first to do many things, but that was not her goal,” said retired VA registered nurse Emma Jean Powell of Stone Mountain. “Her goal was to let you know it could be done, and that you, too, could follow the path that you chose. She never hesitated to step up and voice what other nurses would only discuss in small groups. She believed that all nurses had equality in their practice and their profession.”
While leader of the Chi Eta Phi registered professional nurse sorority, Bellamy was a stickler for order and instilled pride in the organization, said Juanita Gibbons-Delaney, nursing administrative supervisor at Emory Hospital Midtown.
“She was all about education and bringing up the next generation of nurses,” Gibbons-Delaney said. “She trained enough of us in the Verdelle Bellamy university to continue her legacy.”
Bellamy also shared her experience and leadership at her church – singing in the choir, serving as a trustee and helping the congregation to build a strong foundation when it opened 24 years ago, said the Rev. Keith L. Reynolds, pastor at Christian Fellowship.
“Mrs. Bellamy understood what her responsibility was,” Reynolds said. “She was an accomplished woman with something to share with those coming after her. She didn’t just pass the baton, she would also give you good suggestions to help you run your race successfully.”
Practical and caring, she also will be remembered for her quiet resolve and work ethic, said her godson Sherman Bonds of Atlanta. “She led by example and modeled the exemplary behaviors that were needed for our growth as a people of color in an ever-changing nation,” Bonds said.
The U.S. House of Representatives honored her in 1980, and the NAACP presented her its Freedom Hall of Fame Award in 1986. In 1993 she was inducted as a fellow in the American Academy of Nursing, the profession’s most prestigious honor.
She also was recognized by her alma maters. In 1981, Tuskegee University presented her with an Alumni Merit Award. Emory awarded her the Emory Medal, its highest alumni honor, in 2005 and named her an Emory University History Maker during the college’s 175th anniversary in 2011.
“She was a visionary leader and a change agent for patient-centered care for veterans,” Linda McCauley, dean and professor of Emory’s Nell Hodgson Woodruff School of Nursing, said in a statement. “Countless Emory nursing students and VA patients have, and will continue to be touched by the legacy Verdelle has set forth.”
In addition to her son, Bellamy is survived by her sister Erma Lee Brim of San Francisco.
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