Hoots retires following long career of caring for others

Jo-Ann Hoots

"Recently I was the weekend supervisor, and I filled in if the nursing director was off -- actually it wasn't the first time that I had worked here." Hoots noted that she first worked at the Piggott nursing home in 1985, and later served as director of nursing when it was a Beverly Enterprises property and called the Piggott Nursing Center.

"I've also worked in hospitals, in fact I spent about nine years working at the hospital but I prefer the nursing homes," she explained. "I missed the hospital, but in nursing homes you get to know the people better. In a hospital they just come and go, but in a nursing home you spend about as much time with them as you do your own family."

Hoots also spent a number of years at the nursing home in Rector, now known as Evergreen Health and Rehabilitation, beginning when the facility opened and working there as nursing supervisor until she reached retirement age at 62.

Looking back over the three decades of her career in health care, Hoots noted that much has changed. "I wore a white starched uniform, white pantyhose and a white cap and I was one of the last holdouts when everyone switched to colored scrubs." She explained that she finally relented to the idea of wearing the color-coordinated scrubs when she realized that everyone was coming to her with questions because, "it looked like I was the only nurse in the building with my bright white uniform."

Although her husband Gerald finds it hard to believe that she won't return to the job, Hoots is looking forward to more leisure time. "I still garden and keep a vegetable garden, and I'll work in the yard some...as little as I can get away with," she noted. "I also want to spend more time with my grandchildren and my great-grandchildren. I want to have more time for them to visit me and for me to visit with them. I've got three great grandkids here in Rector."

As for the remainder of her time she added, "I'd also like to do a little shopping -- that is if I have any money left now that I've quit my job."

When asked how she was influenced as a young woman to become a nurse, she's quick to give credit to two local nurses. "It was Peggy Statler and Judy Mallard who really influenced me when I worked with them. They were so professional and caring, I wanted to be just like them."