For 40 Years, Marjorie’s Been the Real Deal at St. Luke’s ... Really

Pavlov, the famous Russian physiologist who learned to make dogs slobber at the ring of a bell, has nothing on Marjorie Steele, St. Luke’s most tenured employee. The director of nursing serves up factoids – "In 1961, there wasn’t even a nurse in the emergency room ... staff would have to buzz for one" – and you respond, "Really?"

"Really."

True, the 62-year-old Steele, who loves to work at night, doesn’t push for that response, but when you’re used to the "high-tech, high-touch" St. Luke’s of today, you can’t help yourself.

"In 1961 the pharmacy wasn’t even open at night. A supervisor and security would have to go and get the medcine," she says.

"Really?"

So it goes when you travel down memory lane with the registered nurse whose first day of work at St. Luke’s Episcopal Hospital was Nov. 5, 1961. It was the year the girl who would become Princess Diana was born, and Dr. Cooley was nine months away from "giving birth" to the Texas Heart Institute. Betty and Barney Hill became the first couple in the United States to claim they were victims of an UFO/alien kidnapping, and Elvis, the young St. Luke’s nurse’s favorite singer, made a live recording of "Hound Dog" in Hawaii.

"Respiratory therapy wasn’t open at night when I started at St. Luke’s. It was a supervisor’s job to get it," Steele says.

"Really?"

The lady, now known simply as "Margie" to other nurses, grew up in Alabama, which she commonly refers to as the "Holy Land." While most nurses know she means Alabama when she says she "is going to the Holy Land for a few days," new employees have been known to give her a puzzled look. In high school, she thought she wanted to be a teacher – until a nurse recruiter came to her school. The recruiter talked about how nurses could help people, and the idealistic young girl was hooked. She wrote a paper on why she wanted to become a nurse and won a civic club scholarship to nursing school in Birmingham, Ala. A nursing internship at the Houston VA Medical Center was followed by a position at St. Luke’s.

She’s been married to Dale Steele, a certified public accountant, a year longer that she’s been a St. Luke’s. (Dale has been known to argue that his wife has more allegiance to St. Luke’s than to him.)

"Truthfully," she says, "I never thought I’d work so long. I didn’t think I’d work after I had children. But as you get children, you want more for your children and you stay with it – particularly if you enjoy it as I do. I have gotten everything I expected out of nursing. I love helping people, working with people. It’s just as rewarding as I thought it would be when I was in high school. I even got to be part of history when Dr. Cooley was doing the first transplants."

The Steeles have three children. At first, Steele worked nights so her husband could watch the children at night. But she came to love the closeness she says you experience with employees at night.

"They become another family. You know more about each other’s children, and when my daughters got married, my St. Luke’s family all came."

During one of her pregnancies, her St. Luke’s family gave Steele a baby shower and dressed up two young male employees as babies and carted them in on a stretcher. When tragedy struck, her St. Luke’s family also was there.

"I lost a baby shortly after it was born, many years ago. The night this happened, my room was full of people."

It is that kind of caring, she says, for each other and patients, that is different at St. Luke’s.

"I talk to other nurses – my two sisters are nurses – and there’s no doubt we have more of a caring atmosphere. And people listen to you here when you have a suggestion."

Steele understands that the lure of seemingly "better opportunities" will sometimes make employees leave St. Luke’s.

"But I can’t tell you how many employees end up coming back here because working here really is better."

When she isn’t working, you can often find St. Luke’s most experienced employee playing with her grandchildren, listening to Astros baseball games, reading light mysteries, eating out with her husband, or shopping in used book stores.

"I’ve found several books recently on Dr. Cooley," she says.

Her energy level is still high. During the flood in June, she worked from 8 p.m. Friday until 3 p.m. Saturday.

"I may work up until I am 90. Hey – I love what I do!"

Recently, she bought her dream car, a Chrysler PT Cruiser. So how does she like driving it?

"I don’t really like to drive," she says. "My husband drives me to work and a friend drives me home."

"Really?"

"Really."

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©2006 Texas Medical Center

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