Samaritan Medical Center
The House of the Good Samaritan Blanche Livermore Nursing Memorial Scholarship, established in 1986, was created by the House of the Good Samaritan (now the Samaritan Medical Center), in Watertown, New York. It provides financial help to students pursuing a nursing degree at Jefferson Community College. The award was prompted by the estate of Miss Livermore who wanted to help struggling nursing students. JCC’s nursing students receive training from Samaritan Medical Center. This award is offered to returning students who have some financial need and show academic promise.
Blanche Livermore was born January 1, 1903, in Hounsfield, New York. Her parents were Levi and Minnie M. Ketcheson Livermore. She graduated from Dexter High School, Dexter, New York, and Central City Business School in Syracuse, New York. In 1922, she became a stenographer and typist in the Watertown office of the Internal Revenue Service.
While serving as Dexter’s first Girl Scout leader in 1930, she organized the creation of a quilt that stands as a record of local and national history. It is seen as one of the most unique quilts ever made in Northern New York. The canvas represents an unusual galaxy of American notables where signatures of presidents Hoover, Coolidge, Taft, Roosevelt, their staff, and wives could be found. Most people would consider these names important enough to give the quilt historical significance; however, they were not the only names to be found on the quilt. Also included were the signatures of Charles Evan Hughes, Chief Justice; Governor Alfred E. Smith; Owen D. Young, chairman of the board of the General Electric Co. and author of the Young Reparations Plan for Germany, and former mayor of New York City, James J. Walker. Additionally, Thomas A. Edison, world famous inventor, was asked to sign the quilt, but due to his ill health he was unable to do so.
The quilt represented a wheel of red and white radiations. Although the famous signatures stood out by their location in the wheel’s central block, the central block was upstaged ever so slightly by its hub with the inscription ‘The Girl Scouts of Dexter, N.Y.’ Appropriately, to give importance to Dexter residents as well, 400 signatures of well-known members of the community adorn the body of the quilt.
When her position with the Internal Revenue Office was discontinued in 1933, she had achieved the position of deputy collector. In the mid 1930’s, she moved to New York City, New York. While working with the Federal Communications Committee there, she graduated from the Merchants and Bankers College. During World War II, she moved back to the Watertown area and worked at Pine Camp (now Fort Drum), New York.
Miss Livermore was a member of the Dexter Presbyterian Church.
She died September 14, 1966.
The Jefferson Community College Foundation is grateful to Samaritan Medical Center for creating this scholarship.