Columbia Sassano, Nurse

Nominator:

Sandra Toigo (with Gigi Meinhardt)

Who is my bold woman?

Columbia Sassano

Where and when did she live?

Born and raised in Billings, Montana, 1922-2017.

What did she do?

Columbia Sassano was my neighbor when I moved to Billings. Born to Italian immigrants in the Southside neighborhood of Billings, Columbia had to repeat first grade because she spoke only Italian the first time around. In 1920, Columbia’s mother had come over from San Marcos in Lamas in southeast Italy, where she had her own olive oil business. Columbia’s dad came to the US via Canada, becoming an American when he enlisted in World War I. He worked in a mine in Michigan before traveling to Billings for railroad work.

After high school, Columbia trained as a nurse in, as she called it, “President Roosevelt’s” Army Nurse Corps. (After Columbia’s death, her daughter donated her army nurse uniform to a military museum in Oklahoma.) Columbia and three of her five siblings served in World War II. In Tacoma, she took care of soldiers who came home with TB; she spoke of their condition and what they went through overseas quietly, as if everything about war and what people did to one another during it was unspeakable. After the war, on the G.I. Bill, she trained as a nurse anesthetist at Sacred Heart Hospital in Spokane and came back to Billings to work at St. Vincent Hospital. She married and had two daughters. She loved her beautiful stucco house, just down the street, and kept it spotless. She never wanted to leave it. I was honored to be there when she did leave it, and us, at last—when she died there. 

Gigi Meinhardt (Columbia’s daughter) adds: My mom lived with such grace and kindness each day. When we moved to our current neighborhood, my folks were the young couple and we the only children there, surrounded by older, established families. My mother had all the neighbors’ keys, which were given to her because of all her kindness and caring. When anyone was sick or hurt they called my mom first before they went to any doctor. My mom did not drive and walked everywhere all her life. I can still see her with a dust rag in her hand wiping the stair banister clean every time she went up or down well into her 90s—she was never empty-handed. Mama made all her and our clothes, even our underwear, when we lived on a farm near Bridger. She sewed my dad's canvas irrigation dams too. She raised, butchered, and canned chickens and ducks, ran a creamery, and made our butter and wonderful ice cream. She sold eggs "for a dime a dozen." We didn’t have indoor plumbing; she pumped and heated all the water for bathing us, cooking, and cleaning. She doctored all the animals, and worked in town as a nurse to boot. My mom loved Sandra (above). Sandra made my mother laugh when she needed it the most, after she lost my Dad in 2017.

What does she mean to me?

Columbia and her daughter Gigi and Gigi’s dog, Kirby, were my first and only friends in Billings. The three of them worked so hard and had such high standards. They were real and true to themselves and their values and to each other. I was inspired by them and loved them so hard. I’m lucky to have known them.

Gigi Meinhardt adds: My mom is heroic to me. If I am half the person she was as I go out, I will be pleased. Each time I look at my key ring and see the growing number of neighbors’ keys I carry, I think of her and am proud I carry on her tradition.

[Note from Beth Judy: I’m adding a link here to one of the best obituaries I’ve ever read! Treat yourself.]

https://www.michelottisawyers.com/columbia-sassano-meinhardt/

Columbia as a child with her “Jannafarm,” or Aunt of the Farm. Some members of the family operated a neighborhood store across from the old Garfield School in Billings. The “Jannastore,” another of Columbia’s aunts, was in charge of the store. All photos courtesy of Gigi Meinhardt.

Columbia in uniform in Tacoma, WA.

With her grandmother after the war. That’s a giant home-baked loaf of bread.

Columbia with her nephew Lonnie on her sister’s ranch south of Bridger, Montana. She is just about to meet her husband-to-be at the Bridger Rodeo.

In Spokane after World War II, gowned for surgery with fellow nurse anesthesiologists. Columbia is the middle one.

Columbia with her dear friend and neighbor (and primary writer of this tribute), Sandra.