LITERARY LAS VEGAS

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Local resident and retired nurse Patricia Van Betten's book "Nursing Illuminations: A Book of Days" shares the life stories of 365 nurses, including Clara Barton, Florence Nightingale and Virginia Cassady Clinton Kelley.

Excerpt from "Nursing Illuminations: A Book of Days"

The minister who conducted Virginia Clinton Kelley's graveside service remembered her "as an American original. ... She was like a rubber ball. The harder life put her down, the higher she bounced. She didn't know what the word quit meant." Kelley, the daughter of a nurse, decided to become a nurse-anesthetist in high school so she could be in the "wave of the future." She developed a large, successful practice in Hot Springs, Arkansas, that lasted more than three decades. ... She did not allow the severity of her breast cancer to hinder the presidential campaign and inauguration of her son Bill Clinton as the forty-second president of the United States.

To propose an item for Literary Las Vegas, from a recently released book to an upcoming signing, local authors may contact Ginger Meurer by mail at P.O. Box 70, Las Vegas, NV 89125-0070; by fax to 477-3852; or by e-mail, gmeurer@viewnews.com.