"Emma Rochelle Wheeler"(February 7,1882-September 12,1957)

A native Floridan Emma,was born near Gainesville.Emma grew up in Florida,where her intrigue with the medical professional was aroused at the early age of six.
An eye problem prompted her daddy to take her for treatment to a white female diagnostician.Young Emma and the female physician became friends,and when she went to school in Gainsville the doctor's abiding concern for and interest in her continued.She visited Emma at Cookman Institute in Jacksonville.At age seventeen, Emma finished Cookman and in 1900 she married Joseph R.Howard,a teacher.
Joseph died a year later of typhoid fever seeing the son named for him.Shortly after Howard's death,Emma & Joseph JR., moved to Nashville,Tennessee.She attended Walden University,and in 1905 her dream became realty when she graduated from
Walden University's Meharry Medical Dental,and Pharmaceutical College.Emma was also married to Dr.John N.Wheeler during the week of Meharry's commencement.
Following graduation,John and Emma moved southeast of Nashville to Chattanooga
and with meager resources set up their medical practice on
Main Street.For ten years,John and Emma practiced together.In 1915.Dr.Wheeler purchased two lots on East Eight Street at the corner of Douglas,where had a
three-story building constructed.After the structure's completion,on July 30,1915 the
thirty-bed,nine private rooms,and twelve-bed ward of the medical dispensary was
dedicated as the Walden Hospital.
Complete with surgical,maternity,and nursery departments,Walden Hospital was staffed by two doctors and three nurse.Seven physicians and surgeons from the Mountain City Medical Society used the facility and admitted their patients.The median monthly patient load was twelve.Although Dr.John admitted his patients to the facility,it was managed,operated,and paid for by Dr.Emma.
While maintaining long office hours and serving supertendant of Walden Hospital,Dr.Emma personally performed a number of Thu surgical procedures.She found surgery too exhausting to continue,in addition to her other responsibilities.For more than twenty years,Dr.Wheeler also maintained a school for nurses.She,along
with the assistance of Dr.John,taught and trained many students who were interested in becoming attendants care-givers.In 1925,Dr.Wheeler initiated the Nurse Service Club of Chattanooga,an innovative,prepaid hospitalization plan.The Nurse Service
Club,the only one of its type in Chattanooga,was entirely to the facility separated from the hospital's operation.
In 1949,the Chattanooga,branch of the NAACP voted Dr.Wheeler the "Negro Mother of the Year."Emma was a member of the
Mountain City Medical Society;the State Volunteer Medical Association,treasurer and member of the board of trustees of Highland Cemetery;and a member of Wiley Memorial Methodist Church.In
January of 1925 she along with Emma Henry,Zenobia House,and Marjorie Parker,organized the Pi Omega Chapter of Alpha Kappa Alpha sorority,Chattanooga's first AKA chapter.Dr.Emma health began to decline in 1951 and two years later,in June of 1953,she retired from operating and managing Walden Hospital.With her retirement,Chattanooga's first and only African-American owned hospital ceased operation on June 30,1953,after thirty-eight years of service.For a while She continued to practice general medicine,receiving her patients on te floor of the former hospital building.Dr.Emma died in Nashville's Hubbard Hospital.The body of the
pioneering health-care provider was conveyed back to Chattanooga and funeral service was held on September 17 at the Wiley Memorial Methodist Church.Emma is buried in Highland Cemetery.