Lanetta Bishop gave birth to all three of her sons at the old
Hazel Hawkins Memorial Hospital on Monterey Street and later served
as auxiliary president. Aurelia Bozzo served as a nurse at both the
old and new hospitals and watched as the medical facility grew and
advanced along with the town. And every time Linda Morrissey has
blood drawn at the hospital, she gets a kick out of telling the
nurse that Hazel Hawkins was her aunt.
Lanetta Bishop gave birth to all three of her sons at the old Hazel Hawkins Memorial Hospital on Monterey Street and later served as auxiliary president. Aurelia Bozzo served as a nurse at both the old and new hospitals and watched as the medical facility grew and advanced along with the town. And every time Linda Morrissey has blood drawn at the hospital, she gets a kick out of telling the nurse that Hazel Hawkins was her aunt.
It’s a Hollister institution, and nearly every longtime resident of the community has a story about the hometown hospital that turns 100 this month.
Throughout November, the hospital will celebrate that century of service to the community. But the hospital’s conception itself resulted from tragedy.
On March 5, 1902, Hollister resident Hazel Hawkins died after a surgery to remove her appendix. The 9-year-old’s death came as a blow to her grandfather. So Thomas Hawkins – known to most as T.S. Hawkins – decided he needed a way to remember his beloved “Little Sunshine.”
“I had long been considering some suitable monument to her memory and … I decided that a hospital in remembrance would be what she would have chosen,” Hawkins wrote in his autobiography, “Some Recollections of a Busy Life.”
By 1906, a blueprint had been developed for the Hazel Hawkins Memorial Hospital on Monterey Street. The plans called for a building with “every modern improvement which will add to the comfort of patients or to make the building more sanitary,” according to a Free Lance story at the time.
The hospital opened with an official ceremony on November 23, 1907. The building’s cost with furnishings was $40,000. Hawkins addressed the crowd, dedicating the new building to the city on behalf of his deceased granddaughter.
“From the beautiful and unselfish life of the little child whose name adorns these portals came the inspiration of all that has been done,” he said, according to archives.
Through the years, Hazel Hawkins Memorial Hospital became a cornerstone of the Hollister community.
“I love the history of this hospital. It really speaks to me,” Health Care District President Beth Ivey said in an interview Tuesday. “It’s easy to catch his passion, vision and his heart.”
Bozzo, 92, worked at the hospital in the early 1940s and, after a brief hiatus while she raised her family, went back to work at the new hospital on Sunset Drive.
At the Monterey Street hospital, Bozzo would work the night shift – and usually as the only registered nurse on duty manning the 20 rooms.
“The work was pretty hard,” she said.
Nursing at that time was much different, she said, as the women dressed in white caps and dresses. Because the community was so small at the time, Bozzo often found herself treating friends and neighbors.
“At that time when we used to prepare them – ‘prep’ they say – it was embarrassing for the patient,” she said. “I would always say, ‘Here at the hospital, we’re patient and nurse. On the street, we’re friends.'”
The town grew from the 1940s, however, and with it the hospital’s services needed to expand as well. Needs of the city soon grew out of the small building on Monterey Street. But the hospital still remained a part of the community.
In December 1957, San Benito County voted to approve the hospital district. Five years later, a new district hospital on Sunset Drive was built.
In the decades since then, with many additions along the way, this Sunset Drive hospital has served the San Benito County community.
“Hazel Hawkins Hospital is truly one of our community assets. It should be a tremendous pride to all of us,” Supervisor Anthony Botelho said at a celebration Tuesday of the hospital’s 100 years.
The impact of T.S. Hawkins’ generous donation is still felt in the community a century later.
“It’s too bad they didn’t name Hollister ‘Hawkinsville’ because he was so philanthropic,” said San Benito County Historical Society member Sharlene Van Rooy, who added, “I don’t know how good ‘Hawkinsville’ would have sounded.”
T.S. Hawkins still has many descendants – who were honored by the hospital Tuesday – living in the Hollister area.
Linda Morrissey, Hazel Hawkins’ niece, said she felt proud about her great grandfather’s contribution. Morrissey’s mother grew up in T.S. Hawkins’ home and she would speak often about him.
“She just always felt fortunate to know him because he was an extraordinary man,” Morrissey said. “I’m just proud I’m a descendant.”
