According to Pearl's death certificate, she was divorced at the time of her death. Her gravestone at St. Mary's Cemetery indicates she was a mother.
The cause of Pearl's death was "Peritonitis (due to) intestinal strangulation." A little less than six weeks before her death, Pearl underwent an operation in which a significant finding was "twisted intestines -- gangrene."
As mentioned at the top, Pearl passed away at the Dickey Clinic in Taylor, Texas. It was run by Dr. James Lee Dickey (1893-1959), one of the only practicing Black physicians in Williamson County, Texas, in the 20th century. He settled in Taylor after graduating from medical school in 1921. The following is from a blog post by Preservation Scholar Jae'la Solomon, hosted by the Friends of the Texas Historical Commission:
"One of Dickey’s goals was to combat the disparate rates of disease amongst Black Americans in Taylor. Ailments like tuberculosis, typhoid, and infant diarrhea all plagued the rural Black community in the area. Dickey acted and showed results. For instance, in 1933, rates of typhoid fever, a potentially fatal bacterial infection, rapidly increased in rural Taylor. Many African Americans worked as sharecroppers and were unable to afford the cost for clean city water, so they borrowed from a local ranch. This water, unsafe for consumption, spread the sickness and many were left without proper treatment. Dr. Dickey noticed a spike in typhoid and talked with city officials, explaining to them the link between typhoid and the ranch water. His advocacy made a great difference, and officials authorized the opening of fire hydrants. Families came out with buckets, filled them with water from the hydrants, and took them home. Dickey also began to treat willing patients of the infection, making house calls and walking through the mud to get to those in need.
Eventually Dickey realized that he needed a space to treat more patients, so he bought an empty rooming house at 401 Bland Street and renovated the space into what would become the Dickey Clinic. Dr. Dickey did remarkable work at the clinic. He and a staff of predominantly Black nurses offered critical care to the Black folks of Williamson County. Dickey treated patients with venereal diseases, offered free prenatal care, and helped to nearly eliminate tuberculosis and cases of infant diarrhea amongst African Americans in Taylor. In 1952, his service to the community granted him Taylor’s Citizen of the Year, a very rare feat for a Black man in the Jim Crow South."
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| Photograph of the Dickey Clinic at 401 Bland Street, Taylor. The clinic opened in 1936; this picture was taken in 1955. Dr. Dickey was the African American doctor in Taylor who worked with city leaders to stop a typhoid epidemic in Taylor's poor districts. - The Portal to Texas History |
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