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The local synagogue later established the name of Congregation House of Israel and I also served on it's Board of Directors (and as Education Director)

I have quite a bit of additional information and documentation of other accomplishments.

She not only "encouraged" the establishment of a free public health nursing program for Garland County, she is rightfully credited with beginning it in Sentinel Record newspaper article I have. Miss Mary Speare was the first Public Health nurse that she hired in that capacity. (this fact is also noted in "Hospital Heartbeat of the Levi Hospital written by Mrs. George McLaughlin)

She served as PRESIDENT of the Mid-West Hospital Association in the year mentioned in the article above, she was a member for many more years. I have a wooden plaque attesting to this fact. I was also written up about in the Arkansas Jewish Assembly Bulletin November 1950 and other publications

During the time she was honored by Eleanor Roosevelt with a bruch at the White House, she also spoke before Congress. I recently discovered the speech she gave stored in a box.

Eleanor Roosevelt also presented her with a two volume set of Woodrow Wilson's Life and Letters that she inscribed to my Grandmother.

She not only served on the original board of Arkansas Blue Cross and Blue Shield, she was honored in a pamphlet a few years back as one of it's organizers in Arkansas (something that is also mentioned in other publications I have somewhere in the many boxes of things I came into possession when my mother Betty Kaplan Uzick passed away, and after 2005 when my father passed and we cleaned out the home )

I'll quote a few portions from one of many other references I could use..this from a January 1951 mailing issued by Blue Cross Blue Shield, the publication they then called "Scribe", published monthly by the Arkansas Medical & Hospital Service in Little Rock

Miss Regina H. Kaplan, Blue Cross Board Member, is retiring from her post as Administrator of the Leo N. Levi Memorial Hospital in Hot Springs, on January 16, 1951, the exact date of her thirty-fifth anniversay as hospital head. In her honor, a "thirty-fifth Anniversary Tribue" is being planned, in which the entire city of Hot Springs will join. The Mayor of Hot Springs will proclaim the day "Kaplan Honor Day", she will be honored by local press and radio, and a suitable brochure with tributes fron notables of the nation, state and city, together with a statement of her own words and other features...
( it was broadcast on KTHS KWFC and on a local telecast )

...In December, 1948, with capital obtained from the Arkanas Medical Society, individual members of the Arkansas Hospital Association, and the Arkansas Farm Bureau Federation, the Arkansas Medical and Hospital Service, Inc, was incorporated and was subsequently approved as a Blue Cross- Blue Shield Plan... ..

I see that the 1938 edition of Whos Who in American Jewry is cited above, she was also listed in the edition of Who's Who in World Jewry in 1955. On page 380 she is listed as Organizer and executive secretary of the Garland County Chapter of the Red Cross from 1917-45, listed as having served as President of the Arkansas Hospital Association in
1947-48 and President of the Mid-West Hospital Association in 1948-49.

Susan Mayer's article only makes reference to her being a "member" of the American Nursing Association in 1918, when in fact she served as it's Vice President that year as the listing in Who's Who in World Jewry for 1955 shows. I believe I have other references elsewhere to support this, too, but i'll have to go do more "digging" in boxes. She belonged to the American Nursing Assocation for many years.

She is listed as organized and directing the National Arthritis Research Foundation from 1942-1951. If my memory serves me correctly it's name was changed to the Arthritis Research Foundation that was later merged in 1964 to become the National Arthritis Foundation...it didn't simply "fold". There was much money raised for a Research Hospital that was planned..but never built, and this was always a great sorrow to my mother as she knew Kappy devoted many years toward this goal. Much of the early research into using ACTH (cortisone) was funded by the National Arthritis Research Foundation.

There were several celebrities that became 'spokespersons"..I believe Lionel Barrymore was mentioned by my mother as having served as one of them. I just "Googled" and discovered that it IS mentioned in his 1954 New york Times obituary! " At one time he was chairman of the national board of sponsors of the National Arthritis Research Foundation."

here is an additional portion of the write up from the Arkansas Medical and Hospital Service (Arkansas Blue Cross Blue Shield ) "Scribe" January 1951:

"She was instrumental in developing the National Arthritis Research Foundation, to be an affiliate of the hospital she served, and although this dream has not been realized as yet, the coming year will see expenditure of $100,000 on a new scientific research laboratory so that the hospital becomes the only institution in America in the specialization of arthritis and kindred ailments, for which a total budget of over $450,000 is to be available. In the last year of her administration, extensive research has been done with new drugs, Cortisone and ACTH, for relief of arthritis. Our congratulations to you, Regina Kaplann, RN for worthwhile and inspiring service - and our very best wishes for continued improvement in your health."

The entire article lists other accomplishments not referred to in the listing here. Contact me for more information if desired for future editions.

Thank you
Respectfully
Regina A. (Uzick) Faulkner

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