Gail Fondren says she always knew she was going to be a nurse.
“I was brainwashed,” said Fondren with a laugh. “When I was a child, I would help my grandmother put her stockings on every day, and she started calling me her little nurse.
“And anytime people around would ask, ‘What are you going to be when you grow up?’, my mother and my grandmother would chime in and say, ‘She’s going to be a nurse.’ So when I graduated from high school, I went to nursing school without thinking a thought about it.”
Now retired after a 43-year career as a nurse, Fondren’s mother and grandmother must have known that her nurturing character was a perfect fit for the profession.
“Everybody should be fortunate enough to do what they love,” Fondren said. “It makes it a pleasure to get up and go to work every day.”
Fondren, 70, is a Leflore County native and the oldest of three.
“I was born in the old Greenwood Leflore Hospital on River Road, and my baby brother, Reese Gilliland, when mother showed him that, he said, ‘Oh, that was back in the horse and buggy days,’ because (the old hospital) had a carriage entrance,” Fondren said.
She and her husband, David, have been married for 52 years and reside in Greenwood. They have two children, David Jr. and the late Ginger Fondren Scott, and two grandchildren, Teal Scott and Lee Fondren.
Gail Fondren is a graduate of Leflore County High School and Mississippi Delta Community College. She began her career as a registered nurse when she was 19 years old at Greenwood Leflore Hospital. She also retired there, but worked at other places throughout her career, including in public health for 30 years.
“When I worked with mommas and babies, going out and visiting them in their homes and teaching them, that was my absolute heart,” she said.
Fondren said the most fun she had as a nurse, however, was when she was a set nurse for the filming of the movie “Ode to Billy Joe” in Leflore County.
The movie came out in 1976 and was inspired by the 1967 Bobby Gentry song of the same name.
“It was just a lot of fun,” said Fondren.
As a set nurse, Fondren said most of her job consisted of giving out salt tablets because of the heat and a few vitamin B12 shots.
“Most of the time I was just there trying to be quiet and not make any racket on the set,” she said.
She said she also had a lot of good times during filming, laughing and carrying on with the movie stars.
She even taught Robby Benson, who played the title character, how to cross-stitch.
“He was so sweet,” said Fondren. “He would come out and sit with us between takes and would play his guitar and write songs, and he would play songs for us.”
Fondren also took many pictures of the filming and had some taken by the set photographer of her and her children with the stars. She even has one of the director, Max Baer, best known for his role as Jethro Bodine in the 1960s TV comedy “The Beverly Hillbillies,” playing football on the set.
Fondren’s mother and son were both extras in the film. She also has an original script from the movie.
Fondren received a special invitation to the movie’s premiere in Jackson, which benefited the Mississippi Film Foundation and Cottonlandia (now the Museum of the Mississippi Delta). It was on the third of June, a date taken right out of the Bobby Gentry song.
Fondren said the movie stars were sectioned off from the rest of those invited — mostly people who had worked on the film — by a rope.
“As I was coming in on the commoners section, Robby Benson came in and (pointing to Fondren) he said, ‘You taught me how to cross-stitch.’” she said. “I felt like, ‘Oh, I’m special,’ but it was just fun. I always have loved to learn and experience new things, so this was right up my alley. I loved those people. I had the best time with them.”
Fondren’s other highlights as a nurse include donating her time at the Spanish mission in Sunflower and going on a medical mission trip to a village in the Ukraine.
Now retired, Fondren enjoys taking Explorers’ Bible Study, playing bridge with her friends, being with her family and brushing up on her Spanish, which she learned during her time volunteering. She also enjoys art, music, plays and ballet.
She is the secretary of Matinee Musicale and a member of Town and Country Garden Club.
“I love flowers, but I am not the best person with flowers,” Fondren said. “I have made a jungle out of my yard. ... My goal was when I started gardening in my yard to try to have something blooming year-round, (so that) when one thing stops, something else would take over. I’m learning still. I’m 70 now, and there are still things I have yet to learn about gardening.”
But Fondren said she enjoys learning and is still setting goals for herself.
“I guess I am a work in progress,” she said.
• Contact Ruthie Robison at 581-7233 or rrobison@gwcommonwealth.com.
