Nurse Builds Legacy to Move Leukemia Research Forward

Patricia Alford Box

As a nurse, Patricia Alford Box knew the value of quality medical care and dedicated her life to helping others. Her desire to create a lasting legacy inspired her to leave one-half of her estate to Southwestern Medical Foundation, a bequest totaling $407,352.

Her generosity will support research into chronic lymphocytic leukemia at UT Southwestern. It was a disease she was all too familiar with and which claimed her life in May 2011 at age 78 after a lengthy and courageous battle. Chronic lymphocytic leukemia is a type of cancer in which the bone marrow makes too many lymphocytes (white blood cells). It is the second-most common type of leukemia in adults.

A lifelong Texan, Ms. Box was born in Beaumont and moved with her family to the town of Springhill at an early age. After high school, she attended nursing school at the Parkland Memorial Hospital School of Nursing, which Texas Woman's University took over in 1954.

Ms. Box started her first job as a nurse at Roy H. Laird Memorial Hospital in Kilgore and then moved to Good Shepherd Medical Center in Longview. She later worked as an occupational health nurse at the Joseph Schlitz Brewing Co. in Longview for 33 years until her retirement.

A self-described "workaholic," Ms. Box was known to say that she never met a stranger. She enjoyed reading and gardening and dedicated much of her time to volunteering at her church, Trinity Episcopal Church, in Longview. Her passion for helping patients during her lifetime will now be perpetuated through the clinical advances her gift will make possible.