Sacred Heart Congratulates Betty July on 50 Years of Service!
Betty July, Information Desk Receptionist at Sacred Heart Hospital in Pensacola, recently was recognized for her 50 years of service to Sacred Heart. On Feb. 9, Laura S. Kaiser, President and CEO of Sacred Heart Health System, presented Betty with a framed certificate, a service pin engraved with ”50” and a catalog from which Betty could select a gift. Currently, Betty is the Sacred Heart employee with the most tenure throughout Sacred Heart Health System, which employs more than 4,000 people.
Jan. 15, 1962, was Betty’s first day on the job at the original Sacred Heart Hospital building on 12th Avenue. She says when she completed her application for employment at Sacred Heart in 1962, ”I put everything on there! I put ‘nurse’s aide,’ ‘housekeeping,’ ‘cafeteria worker,”’ she says. ”If I could have fixed something, I would have put ‘maintenance’ on there, too.”
Betty worked at Sacred Heart during a time when Daughters of Charity served as department heads, and all of the nurses wore white – starched white caps, white shoes, white hose, white uniforms. She began part-time working on the cafeteria line and delivering linens (via the four-story building’s stairs). She soon went full-time as a nurse’s aide in the men’s ward on the second floor.
Over the years, Betty also worked as a nurse tech in Labor & Delivery and Surgery, as an Environmental Services supervisor, and in the Sisters’ residence (now the Pediatric Care Center). Betty also worked for ISS Contractors for 20 years. She recalls that, prior to the installation of computers in the 1980s, patients’ names were kept in a Rolodex. ”When they were discharged, you marked out their name, and when a new patient came in you handwrote their name in.”
Betty’s bubbly personality, patience and contagious smile are perfect for her front-line position at the hospital Information Desk, which calls for her to juggle a multitude of questions from visitors seeking loved ones in the hospital, looking for departments and physicians’ offices, and much more. She thoroughly enjoys her latest position, which allows her to see former co-workers and members of her church when they visit. ”Sacred Heart is like family to me,” says Betty, who has no plans to retire. ”I just take every year as it comes, and I thank the Lord for every day.”
Betty was born Dec. 11, 1937, at Our Lady of Angels Hospital in Pensacola. A 1955 graduate of Booker T. Washington High School, she attended Washington Junior College for two years. In her spare time, Betty enjoys spending time with her grandchildren and visiting elderly church members from Greater Union Baptist Church and Sacred Heart retirees who have been ill. 
