Anna Ropp (1904-2005) was raised in Missouri and left home in 1927 to enroll in the Mennonite Hospital School of Nursing in Bloomington, Illinois. A non-traditional student, Anna had already worked for several years before attending nursing school.
Anna graduated from nursing school in 1931. She began her career as a home care “private duty” nurse but is best known for her role as relief day supervisor at Mennonite Hospital (now Carle BroMenn), a position she held for 22 years. Those who knew Anna professionally are quick to comment about her eye for detail, her ability to run many parts of the hospital operations, her high level of energy and her ever present black book. When Anna’s work day ended it began again at the family farm, where she was known as an outstanding cook and baker, gardener and neighbor. Anna also actively served her church and community. Although she retired in the early 1970s, Anna continued to volunteer until she was in her late 90s as a charter member of the BroMenn Service Auxiliary. Anna Ropp passed away on June 9, 2005 and is buried in the Ropp family cemetery in Hudson, Illinois.
For most of her adult life, Anna recorded her daily activities in five-year diaries; each page of the diaries provided space to write entries for the same calendar date over a five-year span. While corresponding transcripts are available for each page image, the format of the diaries makes it difficult to follow Anna’s story day-to-day. Therefore, PDF-format chronological transcripts have also been provided for those who wish to read the entries in order. Many thanks to Anna’s son, Paul Ropp (1944-2019) for single-handedly transcribing all 3,104 pages of her diary entries from 1933 to 2002!