Maurine Wallace, 75, who gave thousands of newborns their first baths as a nurse’s aide for Palos Community Hospital in Palos Heights, died Sunday of a brain hemorrhage in the hospital where she had worked for 26 years.
Mrs. Wallace, a resident of Orland Hills, started her career in the surgical ward of Palos shortly after the hospital opened in 1972. She began working with newborns two years later and continued to do so until her death.
She never considered retiring from the job she held for so many years because she never grew tired of welcoming another set of eyes to the world or cuddling yet another infant, family members said.
Just a few weeks ago, she spoke to a woman in the hospital’s human resources department about retirement and promptly declared: “I have no intentions of retiring. It’s still not work. It’s just something I want to do.”
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Mrs. Wallace was married 31 years to Robert Wallace, who died in 1976. At the time of his death, two of her children were still in their teens.
“She was a very strong person and a very religious person with a very deep faith,” said her son Rich. “She kept everything going. She just kept it all together.”
Other survivors include three more sons, Lee, Rob and Ray; a daughter, Sharon Garrett; two sisters, Ruth McDonald and Virginia Cohver; a brother, David Lee; and eight grandchildren.
Visitation will be from 2 to 9 p.m. Tuesday in McGann Funeral Home, 10727 Pulaski Rd., Chicago. Services will be held at 10 a.m. Wednesday in the funeral home.