Published: November 04, 2009 10:19 pm      

Jackie Withrow Hospital christened

Pinecrest renamed to honor ‘voice for most fragile citizens’

Jackie Withrow, a self-described tomboy who broke the gender barrier in the West Virginia Legislature the same year John F. Kennedy crossed a religious one by crushing fears of a Catholic presidency, finally landed a long-elusive honor Wednesday as the new name of the former Pinecrest Hospital.

In a ceremony anchored by the man who started it all eight years ago with a legislative bill, Delegate Bill Wooton, D-Raleigh, hailed the christening of Jackie Withrow Hospital as an honor Withrow earned by her long and exhaustive public service.

“She was a tireless representative voice for our most fragile citizens,” Wooton said.

“She was truly an advocate of mercy and of justice and of law. Jackie Withrow Hospital will have a daunting task of living up to her name.”

Withrow was the lone woman in a field of 25 seeking a House of Delegates seat in 1960, the same year a youthful, Roman Catholic senator named Kennedy trudged across the hills and hollows to convince West Virginia voters his religion wouldn’t influence his policies.

Just as Kennedy overcame his Catholicism in the Mountain State, Withrow convinced voters a woman could serve in the House, where she quickly earned respect of her male peers.

Back in those days, committee meetings were closed to the public — a policy she helped reform by helping to sponsor the so-called sunshine law.

Wooton ran through a litany of Withrow’s accomplishments, including work on getting compensation for coal miners suffering black lung, a law mandating mental health retardation tests for all children and her tireless pursuits of reforms in all public institutions, which she visited in an era when lawmakers never met outside Charleston.

“Her approach was a radical change,” Wooton said. “And her expertise was widely recognized.

“She was a female pioneer. She truly became one of the boys in the ... Legislature, and I say that in a positive sense.”

Withrow not only advocated public service by women, but set the example by becoming the first woman to chair the House Health and Welfare Committee and to serve on the powerful Finance Committee.

“She developed an excellent working relationship with her male colleagues who had great respect for her. She was the resident expert in the House on all aspects of health care and mental health care.”

Wooton offered his bill as a state senator in 2001 to rename Pinecrest Hospital after her, but at the time, Health and Human Resources Secretary Paul Nusbaum rejected the idea on grounds it would cost $100,000 to effect the change, saying his agency couldn’t afford it.

Marsha Dadisman, DHHR communications director, said no money was available back in 2001 to make the name change, but since then, the funds have surfaced to do so.

This is the latest in a series of names for the institution, originally known as Rutherford Sanitarium. It became Pinecrest Sanitarium in 1934 when tuberculosis was a major threat, and in 1965, lawmakers changed it to Pinecrest Hospital. Today, it is a 199-bed, long-term care facility.

“Today begins a new era,” Wooton said, “an era which begins with its new name, a name that will bring promise to all that pass through its doors.”

“I didn’t know her,” Beckley Councilman Cedric Robertson said. “But I’ve heard so many great stories about her, a woman of God, a woman who was an advocate for the enforcement of handicapped parking in the state of West Virginia.”

Delegate Sally Susman, D-Raleigh, remembered Withrow as a mentor to her late husband, Alan, when he entered the state Senate.

“I really loved her,” Susman said, choking with emotion. “I don’t think this honor could be bestowed on a more worthy person than Jackie Withrow.”

Vickie Jones, acting commissioner of the Bureau of Behavioral Health and Health Facilities, presented plaques denoting the name change to Withrow’s nephew, Charles Neubert, with whom she lives, and to the hospital’s chief executive officer, Angela Booker.

Withrow, 91, suffered injuries in a fall nearly five years ago at her home after surgery and now is bedfast at Neubert’s home in Crab Orchard. She was handed the moniker “Jackie Boy” in deference to her tomboy attitude in childhood, although her given name is Beatrice Von Brickner Neubert.

“We let her read the greetings and the card, then we talked about it,” Neubert said of the hospital name changeover. “She kind of smiled.”

Besides her more visible public life as a lawmaker for 18 years, Withrow toiled behind the scenes as a volunteer at the Beckley VA Medical Center, logging some 27,500 hours helping veterans five days a week, then returning on Sundays to escort wheelchair-bound patients to worship services.

“I’ve been proud of her for 65 years,” the nephew said.

“That was her achievement, trying to help other people. If there was any way of helping people, she would.”

— E-mail: mannix@register-herald.com