Few folks know what it means to stay the course like Betty Phillips.
In May of 1936 — that is 90 years ago and some change — she was welcomed into the world at the University Hospital. July 13, things came full-circle as she celebrated 70 years working as a nurse at that very same place. However, these milestones only bookend the decades between them, which have seen countless patients, family dinners and hard-earned accomplishments. A nurse to many, mother to three, grandmother to six and more, Betty Phillips has kept her pride for her family and her town at the heart of all she does.
Phillips spent much of her childhood on her grandmother’s farm in Greene County, Va., before moving to Charlottesville as a preteen. She shared that her grandmother Dickerson, a mother to 10 children and “the type of person who helped everyone,” would make mustard plaster, a holistic remedy that the local doctor often borrowed to treat patients. Besides contributing her special plaster, Phillips said her grandmother occasionally assisted the doctor during difficult childbirths. It was in watching her grandmother Dickerson, Phillips said, that her own dream was born.
“‘You just become that nurse you want to be,’” Phillips said, quoting her grandmother. “That’s what I did. I never changed my mind from nursing, not one time.”
With her family’s encouragement, Phillips put her dreams into motion when she enrolled in the diploma nursing school program at Blue Ridge Sanatorium — a tuberculosis sanatorium in Albemarle County that later became part of U.Va. Health. During her first couple of years, she cared for tuberculosis patients whose average hospital stay spanned two years. She emphasized that such long stays allowed nurses to form close relationships with patients and their families, and that because of this, nurses wore many hats beyond their typical bedside duties.
“You felt like you were a social worker for that patient. You did,” Phillips said. “If [patients] were on bed rest, you were writing letters home for them to their wives.”
Fortunately, wearing many hats was something Phillips was also quite familiar with outside of work through her personal life and various roles in the community. Named Charlottesville’s “Woman of the Year” in October of 1971, she was pregnant with her third child, president of “the Janes” — a local women’s group — and simultaneously active on the Democratic committee during L.F. Wood’s campaign for the county’s Board of Supervisors.
“Joy is at work and at home,” Phillips said.
In the early ‘70s as the nursing field continued to evolve from when she first entered her career, Phillips felt that it was becoming important to have a nursing degree beyond her original training at Blue Ridge. She decided to go back to school amidst caring for two teenagers and a newborn son, and headed to Piedmont Virginia Community College.
When asked about attending college while caring for three children, Phillips laughed. “Oh, you could write a book on that.”
She made it work nonetheless, crediting much of her positive experience to her supportive husband, Bill.
According to Phillips, adding studies to her existing responsibilities meant that she and Bill both had to adapt to a fairly unconventional schedule. She described her years-long nighttime routine, which entailed sleeping from dinnertime to 11:30 p.m. — made possible by the fan and low music Bill set up for her in their bedroom — studying from midnight until 4 a.m. and then heading back to bed for a nap before her 8 a.m. class.
“‘You want to go back to school, I'll do so-and-so,’” Phillips said, quoting Bill. “We sat down, and he took over chores … in a time almost when a lot of men didn't do that. But we were [a] twosome … We always supported each other in whatever we wanted to do. So he made it easy.”
Ultimately, her — and Bill’s — diligent efforts would culminate in success come 1975 when Phillips graduated with her nursing degree.
“‘If you want it, honey, go for it,’ and I did and I got it,” Phillips said.
In her postgraduate role as a head nurse at U.Va. Health, patients were not the only group Phillips found herself advocating for. Unlike PVCC, the University did not offer a part-time program for nursing students. With an influx of nurses wanting to obtain their degrees without fully quitting their hospital jobs, Phillips said that she and a group of head nurses approached the director of nursing to lobby for a part-time five-year program. The director and leadership team then took over negotiation efforts, and the program was established shortly after.
Nowadays, Phillips clocks in at the University’s Plastic Surgery Clinic every Monday and usually one Friday a month for shifts she refers to as her “brain days.” Though the in-and-out nature of the clinic is a world apart from her early nursing days in the tuberculosis sanatorium, she said that she still keeps relationships with her patients and colleagues at the forefront.
“I had a patient,” Phillips said. “That patient said, ‘Oh, Betty, I have to tell you, I saw,’ and she named her daughter, ‘and she wanted me to give you a hug and tell you that … She's the nurse she is today because of you.’ So you know, it's so meaningful when you get things like that.”
Outside of “brain days,” Phillips stays busy spending time with family and friends. She shared that two of her three children are Charlottesville residents, with several local family members sharing her passion for the medical profession — her daughter-in-law is a fellow nurse at U.Va. Health and her grandson, an aspiring surgeon, has just entered his fourth year of residency. According to Phillips, her family frequently peppers her with questions about retirement, though even after seven decades, she has no current intentions to throw in the towel.
“As I told someone today that was having a little hard day … she said, ‘Betty, did you ever have a hard day?’ I said, ‘Oh yes, I had many hard days,’” Phillips said. “‘But honey, I never had one day, and it's true today, that I did not want to be back at U.Va. the next day.’”
Read More
SugarBear Ice Cream: A sweet addition to Charlottesville's food scene
By Lucy Larsen | 4 days agoIn a city famous for what is on the menu, SugarBear convinced me to save room for dessert.
The Center for Teaching Excellence navigates the rise of AI use in education
By Phoenix Banks | July 18, 2026Through using a program like the Faculty AI Guides and promoting alternative grading methods in the classroom, CTE makes an attempt to further understand AI head-on.
To love in spite of fear
By Chase Coyte | July 16, 2026But what I realized — what my experience with her helped me realize — is that most decisions are made out of fear. And that’s not necessarily a bad thing.
