Ledgerwood retires after 45-year hospital career

It was 1965. Nineteen-year-old Linda Ledgerwood was working a few trial weeks as the possible “new secretary” for St. Ignatius Hospital in Colfax.

“I actually got paid in petty cash,” she remembers.

Forty-five years later, 65-year-old Ledgerwood is wrapping up a life-long career as human resources director for Whitman Hospital.

Today, March 31, the hospital will host a retirement party at 1:30 p.m. in the hospital cafeteria to honor Ledgerwood. The human resources director will be honored for her years of work at the hospital; her last day is April 1.

“People ask me how can I be here for 45 years, every day doing the same job? Well, it’s a different job every day,” she told the Gazette in an interview Tuesday. The day-to-day diversity of disciplining, hiring and managing staff is a new animal every day, she said. She has always enjoyed that aspect of her work.

“She has worked under 11 hospital administrators.

“She has had a part in training all those administrators,” said Debbie Hoadley, director of performance improvement at Whitman Hospital. Hoadley has been with the hospital for 20 years; it was Ledgerwood who helped her with her initial training for her job.

Hoadley said her friend and co-worker had a great ear for listening, a sense of humor and knows how to get a job done on time.

“She’s very helpful in helping anybody with anything they need. She’ll go out of her way to help you.”

Ledgerwood’s family moved to Colfax in the 1950s. Her parents, Ruth and George Cook, operated Cook’s Chevron Station in Colfax for years. Ledgerwood graduated from Colfax High School and attended a business school. She began working as a clerical assistant at St. Ignatius Hospital in 1965. She was promoted to secretary in 1968 with the opening of Whitman Community Hospital.

“I don’t know if you want to go through all the administrators. I’ve had 11 of them,” she said with a smile.

The hospital, until 1968, was managed by the Sisters of Charity of Providence as part of an area hospital organization.

Ledgerwood can remember fondly several Catholic administrators under which she served, particularly Sister Honora Collins.

A running joke at the hospital in the 1960s was the ongoing trend of mini-skirts. Ledgerwood remembers Sister Amedee Marie taking a ruler to her skirt as a joke.

“She wasn’t serious,” she said with a smile. “She was such a treasure.”

Linda married Dan Ledgerwood in 1975. They were married 12 years and she had a son, Rob.

After she retires, she will move to Las Vegas where Rob and his wife Shantell live. She has aspirations of caring for their new daughter, Mila, born in February.

Work kept her busy for many, many years, she said, but she managed to find time for gardening and some travel. She hopes to spend more time traveling the U.S. in the coming years.