July 15, 1973

The Arkansas Children’s Hospital’s chapel was dedicated, named after Ruth Olive Beall. In January 1934, Beall had traveled to Little Rock to bring a boy with tuberculosis to Arkansas Children’s Hospital for treatment. The boy died within days, and Beall went to Judge Thomas Humphreys, who was president of the hospital board, to complain about conditions at the facility. Humphreys offered the position of superintendent, about to be vacated, to Beall. She accepted, and on February 1, 1934, she became the second superintendent of Arkansas Children’s Hospital and Home. She was superintendent of the hospital from 1934 to 1961. She was largely responsible for the hospital’s survival during the financial difficulties of the Great Depression and for its expansion and improvement in the following years.