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CHOCTAW — When Linda Murray was applying for jobs while studying to be a family physician clinician at Vanderbilt, she received an interesting proposition. The Mississippi Band of Choctaw Indians wanted her to work for the Choctaw Health Department, but then-Chief Phillip Martin charmingly insisted she make a lifetime commitment to the tribe.

“I planned to work for a summer, but Chief Martin said they didn’t need me for two months but to actually come and work permanently,” she recalled. “Being single and in my mid-twenties, I knew I couldn’t do that.”

But Muarray was intrigued with the opportunity. A member of the Choctaw Nation of Oklahoma, Murray’s grandparents lived in Mississippi and Louisiana. An only child, she craved being near family, and besides, the man she met at the job interview seemed interesting. After contemplating the offer, Murray accepted the job.

“I’ve worked there long enough that some of the babies I cared for in utero are now having babies themselves,” said Murray, who married the man she met at the interview: Steve Murray, PhD, an agriculture professor at Mississippi State University.

After working in the Choctaw Health Department’s outpatient clinic for two years, Murray became one of two nurse practitioners on staff at the new Women’s Wellness Center, where women are provided care through annual exams, family planning, prenatal care and well child care through the age of five. “It’s a happy place to work and see the circle of life continue,” said Murray, who has two grown children, Missy and Jason, and two grandchildren, Bo and John Murray.
Murray was drawn to the medical field by family from an early age. When she was born in 1948, Murray came as a “big surprise” to Austin and Edna Shoemaker, aircraft factory workers in Ardmore, Okla., who had lost three babies, two at childbirth. “Mother worked before the era of women working outside the home,” explained Murray. “She told me she wanted to work to occupy her time since she lived away from family, the small apartment she shared with Dad did not require much time for upkeep, and she had no children.”

When Murray was born, her mother, who had married at 14, quit work immediately. When she was a child, the family routinely spent weekends visiting her dad’s sister, an LPN, who gave young Murray a nurse’s uniform with a blue cape. “I played and played,” she recalled. “When asked what I wanted to be when I grew up, I always had one answer: a nurse.”

At Ardmore High School, where Murray was a quiet student who “occasionally made the honor roll,” she studied Latin, sciences and math to prepare for Oklahoma Baptist University’s BSN program. “I was the first of my extended family members to finish college and remember that I had the largest number of family members to attend graduation in Shawnee on that spring May day,” said Murray, who served as president of her college nursing class. “They all followed me to my home two hours away for a luncheon and that evening gave me a surprise reception at the Ardmore YMCA. All that recognition, I had to make something of myself. “

After working as a registered nurse for three years, she decided to pursue graduate school. “My friend gave me a Vanderbilt catalogue … I didn’t understand what a family nurse clinician was, but it looked interesting,” she said. “So I moved to Nashville, a place where I knew no one, had never been, and felt very much alone. When we began clinical rotations, I became more excited about the opportunities this advanced practice would provide. Things were falling into place. Because in the early 70’s this was a new field, I found myself educating people of the role of the family nurse clinician. Some states and nursing boards didn’t recognize this role yet.”

Murray candidly admitted that, over the years, she discovered her least favorite job involved teaching in nursing schools. “I like the clinical area much better than academia; patients are kinder than students,” she said. “And I have to have positive feedback from those I serve and care for.”

After a long day at work, Murray enjoys spending evenings with her husband and playing with Jake, a basset hound, Roxie, a mixed breed, and Peanut, a miniature dachshund who visits often, and “being creative now that I don’t have children to tend to.” She particularly enjoys sewing, doting on her grandchildren, and traveling to exotic places. She’s been to Turkey, Bulgaria, Greece, Israel and Costa Rica. “Steve doesn’t believe in organized tours so we travel on our own,” she said. “I’ve met people from many different places and find them interesting and, most of all, kind.”

At 60, she’s considering retirement, but hasn’t set a time because she enjoys her job so much.

“Life has been good my whole life,” she said. “My parents were supportive of my activities and, most of all, loved me so richly that I never realized they occasionally struggled financially. I’ve always been blessed with a job even when I was not in the market. After marriage and children, childcare was provided with loving caregivers or I would have chosen not to work.”

As a Christian, she’s prayed since childhood about choosing a career, college, even a husband, and children. “I feel that being a nurse and later a nurse practitioner is my mission where God has placed me,” she said.



May 2008

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