SALEM, Va. – In 1934, Jane Morgan Harris delivered a baby in an abandoned gas station and realized that women and families needed better access to health care in the Roanoke Valley.
It inspired her to bring those health care facilities to the Roanoke Valley, which helped bring Friendship Richfield Living to Salem.
Today, Friendship honored Harris with a plaque unveiling, making sure her legacy is never forgotten.
Kim Bratic - the Executive Director of Advancement at Friendship Richfield Living - says that even though the dedication is to Harris, it also honors all women across healthcare.
“We have been there at every angle of health care, and a lot of times that’s overlooked, and recognizing that everything that Jane Morgan Harris stood for was really about taking care of people regardless of their ability to pay for care,” Bratic said. “Back in the day, people actually traded apple butter and eggs for that care. That’s a legacy that friendship still embraces today.”
Today was also the day that the garden was dedicated in her name. The Jane Morgan Harris Garden has dozens - if not hundreds - of day lilies.
Shirley Jarusek - Director of Landscape Operations at Friendship Richfield Living - says she spent nearly five years getting the garden to the perfect condition.
She says the term day lily comes from a Latin term Hemerocallis, or beauty for a day. They only stay in full bloom for a day, but because they bloom in different stages, visitors can see different flowers every week.
Part of Jarusek’s inspiration behind the garden was ensuring that Harris’s name wasn’t lost to time.
“There was a chapel here with her name on it, but during renovations, of course, it was removed, so I felt her name had would get lost and I was not going to have any part of that,” Jarusek said.