TUTWILER — In 1983, Dr. Anne Brooks opened the Tutwiler Clinic in an already-old building on Alma Street. On Friday, Jan. 17, the clinic celebrated the beginning of a new era as it dedicated a newly-constructed facility.
The new Tutwiler Clinic building, which finished construction in December, is a $3 million, 7,500-square-foot, state-of-the-art medical clinic, located on Highway 49. Its construction is the culmination of years of planning by Tallahatchie General Hospital, which assumed operation of the Tutwiler Clinic after Dr. Brooks retired in 2017.
“Dr. Brooks was a Catholic nun who dedicated her life to providing health care to indigent people,” said Jim Blackwood, CEO and administrator of Tallahatchie General Hospital. “She somehow kept the clinic open for decades through a combination of support from her church, a network of generous donors and sheer determination.”
Despite Dr. Brooks’ best efforts, the clinic’s old building, constructed sometime in the 1950s, was far past its prime for use as a medical facility.
“When we took over the Tutwiler Clinic, we knew we were going to have to take a hard look at the building,” Blackwood said. “It was built before anyone ever thought of the Americans with Disabilities Act. It had been added on to and changed, giving it an odd layout for a clinic. It needed a lot of expensive repairs. It wasn’t energy efficient, and didn’t have room for the kind of equipment we need today.”
Renovating the existing building was quickly ruled out as being cost prohibitive.
“If the building had been 30 or 40 years younger, renovation might have been an option,” said Blackwood. “But after meeting with architects and builders, it became obvious that the wisest use of the clinic’s money would be new construction.”
That’s where the Tutwiler Clinic’s network of donors came in. After the television program “60 Minutes” ran a story on Dr. Brooks and the clinic in 1990, viewers moved by the story began to send in donations.
“For years, those donations were what paid the clinic’s payroll and expenses,” Blackwood noted. “Since TGH took over, we’ve tried to only use those donations to provide indigent health care and fund construction of a new building. We want to be good stewards of the donations, and be careful about how we spend them, but not so careful that they just sit in the bank.”
So, two years ago, planning for the new clinic began. According to Blackwood, priorities included a modern, easily-accessible clinic to serve the Tutwiler Clinic for the next 50 years.
“We decided to move the clinic to Highway 49, because we wanted it to be easy to get to, and we wanted everyone passing through Tutwiler to be impressed by the clinic and the town.”
Once inside, Blackwood said he wants patients to be impressed by the health care they can receive in Tutwiler. “We have two waiting rooms, one for sick patients and one for well patients. All the hallways and doorways are wide enough for wheelchairs. The restrooms are all ADA compliant. And the exam rooms are clean, well-lit and have new equipment and furniture. It’s truly a state-of-the-art clinic.”
The new clinic also features a large multipurpose room, paying homage to the fact that Dr. Brooks used a large space in the old clinic for community activities ranging from after-school care to quilting. “We hope to partner with the community foundation and other civic groups to use the new clinic building in the same way,” Blackwood said.
Friday’s ceremony was attended by representatives of TGH and TGH’s medical foundation, which funded the building. Also in attendance were several nuns who worked with Dr. Brooks in different capacities over the years.
Sister Maureen Delaney and Sister Cora Lee Middleton, both of whom now live far from Mississippi, spoke during a formal program, sharing personal recollections of their time in Tutwiler.
“This is an absolutely beautiful, joyous day,” said Delaney, who served at the Tutwiler Clinic and, later, as executive director of the spinoff Tutwiler Community Education Center, for 28 years, from 1987 until her retirement in 2015. “If Anne were here, she would be so excited and so happy.”
Middleton, a registered nurse at Tutwiler Clinic for 35 years, from 1984 until her retirement in 2019, described her emotions at returning and seeing the new facilities as “gratitude, gratitude, gratitude, and thanksgiving, for what has been, for what is now and for what will be in the future.”
Delaney provided an update on Dr. Brooks, who lives with other Catholic sisters in an assisted living center in Albany, New York.
“She has memory issues and she doesn’t remember all of the good things that she has done, but she is getting good care,” Delaney noted, adding, “Please keep her in your prayers.”
Sun-Sentinel Editor Clay McFerrin contributed to this story.
