A huge complex, 450beds. Its initial unit was built circa 1963 by Winton Blount forces. By then his real contracting outfit had already grown too large to compete for Montgomery work, so Winton formed MidSouth Contractors, which won the job. That company turned out to be a real disaster and was quickly disbanded. In those days, the hospital faced the Boulevard, not the parking lot.

In 1975 I scheduled my 82 year old mother for cataract surgery at Baptist. She lived 100 miles away, but got miffed over something about the arrangement, so I asked the hospital administrator (Taylor Morrow) to make a big show when I brought her in. Looking at this giant empire of today, could you believe that he, the Director of Nursing Service, and the Head Floor Nurse, all met her at the curb and escorted her to her third floor room. Those were quaint days.

-Charles Humphries