I met Veda when I was working at a Clarion Hotel to supplement my  income. Everyone that worked there knew knew Veda, she was quite a character.

She’d been married five times. Two husbands she’d remarried, and it still didn’t work.

Veda was born in 1935 in Morgan, Missouri. She’d tell how her mom made a baby bed for her when she was first born, in a dresser drawer. That was a long time before bassinets, baby beds, and car seats.

In 1953, after graduating from high school, she found a job as a med tech in the old Burge Hospital on North Jefferson in Springfield, Missouri. Eventually Lester E. Cox purchased Burge, and changed the name to Lester E. Cox Hospital. It was the main hospital for the north side of Springfield until 2000. Then they built medical mile off South National, which runs into the James River Freeway. Cox Hospital sits at the front. It’s visible on South National or the James River Freeway.

When the new hospital opened Veda was transferred to work at Cox South. Three years later she retired, after working for them fifty years. Then she took the job at the Clarion Hotel. She was a lot of fun. In the nineties, when Branson was booming, Veda and her girlfriend would drive to Branson to see the shows. Some of her favorites were Mickey Gilley, Mel Tillis, Conway Twitty, Bobby Vinton, and Glen Campbell.

Every summer on her vacation she’d take a trip. Her transportation was a Greyhound bus. One year she went all the way to Los Angeles on a Greyhound. She wanted to see Hollywood and the Kodak Theater. Another year she went to Minneapolis, Minnesota, to see the Mall of America.

I haven’t seen Veda since 2003. But I still remember her. She was one of a kind.

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