Yet Gladys wasn’t keen on Elinor’s lofty career aspirations, a fact that laid the foundation for mounting friction between mother and daughter. As a southern-born woman who was all too familiar with Jim Crow, Gladys discouraged Elinor from moving away from her support system to pursue a dream that she viewed as too ambitious for a black woman. In her journal Elinor’s older sister, Gladys, wrote that she recalled their mother telling Elinor “that unless she wanted to work in the stockyards with cattle in the Midwest, she could forget about becoming a veterinarian.” She wanted her daughters to aim high but not so far that they could face a bitter reality as black women. Moreover, she was anxious about her daughters moving away from her.

After graduating with honors from Milton High, Elinor chose to attend nursing school, a decision influenced by her mother’s overbearing nature. That she decided to move out of state was a product of the sad reality that not many nursing schools in the United States were even open to black students. And yet, by choosing the Lincoln School for Nurses in the Bronx, Elinor made a good decision. Lincoln was a highly respected medical institution with a beautifully equipped facility and an excellent staff.26

She excelled in her nursing studies and relished the independent life in New York City. Not all of her adventures were positive, but even the more questionable ones further developed her confidence in her ability to take care of herself. Once she found herself on a date with a smooth-talking man dressed in a zoot suit. It was her first time out with a New York City guy, and the student nurse from the Boston suburbs was excited to be wooed by a grown man. He drove his shiny car deep into the Bronx, parts of which were still quite rural at the time, stopped the car, and whipped out his penis. Elinor, in a fit of tears, managed to talk her way out of the shocking encounter, but it left a deep impression.27 She couldn’t have been further away from the world of Girl Scouts and the careful watch of her mother in Milton. She was on her own in New York City.

When Elinor graduated in 1943 she was one of the top ten students in her class. She’d also developed into a striking woman with a statuesque, curvaceous shape and beautiful smile. She favored her father in looks: both had high cheekbones, a dark chocolate complexion, and alluring eyes. She confidently posed for photos wearing her white nurse’s uniform: a white dress and apron with white stockings and white leather nurse shoes. She must have been pondering her future. With a nursing degree in hand, she did have choices, but she was a single African American woman and it was 1943, so there were many factors that needed to be considered.