70 for 70, installment No. 1: Toon time
Today’s artifact: A 1956 editorial cartoon published in the St. Tammany Farmer newspaper.
Why it is significant: There’s a good reason we included this cartoon so prominently in our 2021 hospital history project. It’s because it so perfectly and simply speaks to the symbiotic relationship that has existed between St. Tammany Health System (i.e., “Parish Hospital”) and the people of St. Tammany Parish from the hospital’s very beginning.
It shows two hands clasped in cooperation in front of the hospital’s original main entrance. One of the hands is labelled “Citizens of St. Tammany.” The other is labelled “Parish Hospital.”
It is a visual reference to the fact that the hospital was essentially willed into being by a group of dogged community activists who knew that the Northshore would never achieve its full potential without a hospital to call its own. So, starting in 1946, they pushed, they lobbied, they raised money – then they pushed some more.
It took eight years, but by the end of 1954, the citizens of St. Tammany had their prize, a humble, one-story country hospital with just 30 beds. It wasn’t much, especially compared to today’s sprawling facility, but it was 30 more beds than they had previously.
For the seven decades that followed, the health system and its staff have been returning the favor by caring for the community with Northshore-style compassion.
“I think that’s the special sauce,” said Dr. Patrick Torcson, the health system’s current chief medical officer, when asked about its sustained success. “There’s no detachment. This is not an interloping corporate initiative. This is very much an organic part of this community in terms of its growth and role in the community.”
An editorial accompanying that 1956 cartoon, which was published on the hospital’s second anniversary, was downright bullish about the future, reading in part: “We have had two good years with our hospital. We are looking forward to the 200th anniversary, which promises much more progress.”
We second that sentiment.
Next week -- Installment No. 2: A blueprint for success