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May 11 , 2008
Chicago’s Nurse Parade celebrates 50th anniversary, honors patients
When Mary Cunningham marched in the festive Chicago Nurse Parade in 1958, the fanfare of the marching bands and the applause of spectators made for a fun day she still remembers.
She returned May 4 to the place where it all began, Our Lady of Sorrows Basilica, 3121 W. Jackson Blvd., for a Mass marking the 50th anniversary of the last Nurse Parade. The parade made a big impression. “You were so proud to be a nurse,” said Cunningham, of Park Ridge, of that parade on May 9, 1958.
Parade roots
The idea for the parade traces back to the 1940s, when thousands attended novenas at Our Lady of Sorrows every Friday to pray for their sons fighting in World War II, said Servite Father Joseph Chamblain, who celebrated Sunday’s Mass. A priest at the basilica at that time, Servite Father Clarence Brissette, noticed a lot of healthcare workers attending the novenas, so he started some just for them, said Frances Vlasses, assistant professor at Loyola University Medical Center’s Niehoff School of Nursing.
From there, Chamblain got the idea for the parade to honor nurses. “There was a nurse shortage, and the parade had two purposes. One was to try to recruit nurses by having floats show what they do. So nursing schools and hospitals developed floats — for example, one had a lot of bassinets,” said Carolyn Hope Smeltzer, a nurse, healthcare specialist and partner at Price Waterhouse Coopers. Smeltzer and Vlasses co-authored “Chicago’s Nurse Parade” along with Connie Robinson. “And the second purpose was simply to recognize nurses as what he called “angels of caring,” she said, adding he felt nurses were underappreciated.
The parades took place every May for 10 years, from 1949 to 1958. A typical parade had 6,000 nurses and 200,000 spectators, Smeltzer said. The parade route circulated for about six blocks near the basilica.
Prayers to Peregrine
In addition to honoring nurses, Sunday’s Mass also celebrated the feast day of St. Peregrine, patron saint of patients with cancer and other life-threatening diseases. “It’s good that nurses and patients can be recognized together,” said Smeltzer. Chamblain asked cancer patients, and later nurses, to stand and be recognized, and significant numbers of the hundreds in attendance stood each time.
Several nurses who were veterans of the parades attended, including Arlene Saklaczynski Malocha and Mary Jane Reese, who marched in the late 1950s, and Leonore Bannes and Marie Graiziger, who marched in the first parade in 1949.
Although the nurse parade was non-denominational, many Catholic hospitals and nursing schools participated. “There has always been a spiritual connection that exists in nursing,” Vlasses said. “Historically, the religious always played a big role in healthcare. Before government, they provided it.”
At the Mass, Smeltzer and Vlasses led nurses in reciting the Nurses Pledge, which includes the promise, “I solemnly pledge myself before God to pass my life in holiness and to practice my profession faithfully.”
Chamblain also presented the St. Peregrine award to Susan Doyle, who has survived cancer four times. She has continued her work as a speech therapist as much as possible, he said, and took on the care of her sister’s children after her sister’s death, as well as taking on the care of her mother after her brother’s death.
“In a quiet way — St. Peregrine’s way — she’s made the world a more loving place,” he said.
