Hattie Martin

Hattie Ula (Brown) Martin was born in Zachary, Louisiana Dec. 30, 1916. Hattie was the fifth of eight children born to John and Hattie Brown. She knew she would not get married right out of high school in 1935—although that was expected of her. She always thought she wanted to be a teacher and received a scholarship to a teaching college. But she couldn’t make enough to pay the rest of the fees. Instead she got $25.00 from her father and moved to New Orleans. She lived with her oldest brother and enrolled in the nurses’ program at Touro Infirmary where she could go to school, work, study and occasionally play. She graduated with her R.N. degree in 1938.

She worked in New Orleans for a while, but knew she wanted to get into the relatively new field of Public Health. So, leaving home alone, Hattie headed for the University of Washington in Seattle. She took courses there and worked in the Public Health field. She received her Public Health certificate in 1943. While there she met and married a U.S. Army soldier from Billings, MT— Bob (Robert H.) Martin. They were married from 1942 until his death in 1998.

After Bob received a medical discharge from the Army, they returned to Billings where Hattie went to work for the Public Health Department. She resigned a few months before their first child was born. She worked sporadically for the Public Health Department until the youngest of her four children was in first grade. In 1957 Hattie went back to work as Public Health Nurse, working primarily in schools as both nurse and counselor; and, in the afternoons, going on home visits to elderly clients. This job gave her summers off as her children grew.

Hattie began to take classes now and then at Eastern Montana College (presently Montana State University Billings) as she worked toward her B.S. degree in nursing. When her youngest was in fourth grade, she spent one semester as a Montana State College (now MSU) student living at Warm Springs while working at Warm Springs Psychiatric Hospital, at Boulder Developmentally Disabled School, at Galen Tuberculosis Hospital and at the State Penitentiary. While she was gone, her son John answered the phone. His side of the conversation: “No, she’s not here….No, she’s in Warms Springs.” After he hung up, Bob asked, “Who was that?” John answered, “I don’t know. They hung up.” Then there was a discussion about saying Mother is working at Warm Springs.

There were very few non-traditional students in college at that time, so Hattie was an oddity. In walking down one of the halls at the prison, men greeted her: “Hello, Mrs. Martin.” “How are you, Mrs. Martin?” “I’m Jim. Do you remember me from Broadwater School?” The other students’ eyes got bigger and bigger. When they finally got outside, one girl almost exploded, “How do you know ALL those men?”

During this time, she continued to work for the Yellowstone County Public Health Department (now Riverstone Health), including 1964-1970 as Director of the County Health Nurses. She also taught the Public Health section for MSU Bozeman. Hattie sure surprised some of her classmates when she changed out of her striped student nurse uniform to stand up as a teacher! In 1970 she became Director of the Billings Red Cross.

She attended classes at EMC as time allowed and a spent few more quarters at Bozeman since Montana State University was the only Montana school to have a B.S. Nursing program. Hattie finally graduated with her B.S. in nursing in 1970. What a proud achievement after decades of work. Hattie Martin certainly persevered and met her goals.

The Hattie Martin Perseverance Grant was established in 2020 to honor her memory.