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| Just before Christmas, Mercy Hospital patient Jacqueline Hen-derson made a new friend in Mattie L. Moody, leader of a volunteer group called the Mercy Gray Ladies. Mercy, then St. Petersburg’s only medical facility for black people, was trying to publicize the need for more Gray Ladies: Only 19 were available to feed, entertain and do errands for 100 patients. Moody, an elder in her church and a volunteer for many charities, lived for years in Jordan Park, but moved when Interstate 275 cut through her neighborhood. When she died in 1989 at age 95, she had outlived Mercy by nearly a quarter-century. It is not known what became of the child.
• THE GRAY LADY |
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