MOUNT VERNON – Dr. Ellamae Simmons, a Mount Vernon native who helped advance African American women in medicine, received a historical marker Friday in the Public Square.
Simmons, who died in 2019, was the first African American woman to specialize in asthma, allergy and immunology in the United States, according to information from Kaiser Permanente, the health system where she worked for 25 years.
She was born on March 26, 1918, in Mount Vernon, the fourth and youngest child of Augustus "Gus" Simmons and Ella Sophia Cooper Simmons. Her parents owned a home on East Pleasant Street.
The marker explains she helped integrate the military during World War II as one of eight African American nurses posted to the army base and hospital in Fort Des Moines, Iowa. At The Ohio State University (OSU) in its pre-med program, she integrated the Columbus dorms.
City Councilman Tanner Salyers read Simmons’ autobiography after education professors Stephen and Sharon Metcalf of Mount Vernon Nazarene University gifted him the book.
Salyers said he was stunned when reading about the barriers Simmons had broken and the legacy she had left.
“Nobody knew her,” Salyers told the Mount Vernon News. “She’s Mount Vernon’s most famous person we’d never heard of.”
From that moment, he set his mind on changing her status. He reached out to the Ohio History Connection to see what had to be done.
“I realized really [quickly] I couldn’t do this alone,” he said.
Salyers said it was important to have input from the young women of color she inspired.
He formed a memorial committee with Professor Ric Sheffield of Kenyon College, Professor Renee Romano of Oberlin College, the Rev. Scott Elliott of the First Congregational United Church of Christ and area high school students.
Salyers said he wanted to get the entire community behind the marker’s fundraising effort. Within a week and a half, a GoFundMe page he launched had raised the funds.
After the Ohio History Connection approved the historical marker, council passed a resolution to allow its installation on the Public Square.
A representative of OSU attended the marker’s dedication on Friday, as did Mount Vernon resident Jeff Ward, a member of the Ohio History Connection. Four of Simmons’ stepdaughters were there as well as some cousins and her niece, Varian Simmons Wilson.
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