. . . CAUSE I AM A WOMAN: A WOMAN TO FIX YOUR SMILE (366 hits)
A WOMAN TO FIX YOUR SMILE
Focus Guest: IDA GRAY NELSON ROLLINS, D.D.S.
Greetings with a smile, I am among some of the most important women of history and women of yesterday and today. Why? Because I fixed smiles; and because I am one of the first Afro-American woman to become a certifiable dentist in the United States! Of course, you might not hear my name mentioned very often if you haven't been keeping up with women of dentistry.
I didn't start off as becoming a dentist at first. I was born in Clarksville, Tennessee, but, unfortunately, I lost my mother at a very early age and moved and lived with my aunt and her family. I did sewing jobs, and was hired part-time at a dental office as an assistant. I was supported in my education by my white father whose name was not recorded in my history. I later graduated from dental school from the University of Michigan receiving my doctrine degree in dentistry. I returned home from in 1890 and practiced dentistry for five years. I married twice,t my first husband, Sanford Nelson was a Spanish-American war veteran died in 1926. Three years I married again to William Rollins where we moved to Chicago and I opened a dental practice where I serviced men, women and children.
I led a most interesting life and looked down many of opened mouths. But my voice to achieve a great opportunity in a man's job was granted with a love of fixing smiles and the importance of having a voice for women equality. I also smile at the remembering of history of women. . . cause I am a Woman. I fixed smiles.
