VANESSA CLARKE
The two-story brick building at 99 Main St. has seen many transformations over its history.
Originally a fish market, it was transformed into The Quigless Clinic by the late Dr. Milton D. Quigless in 1946 before entering its current use as an alternative medicine clinic by one of Quigless' daughters, Carol.
Carol M. Quigless spoke at length about her father, his clinic and the exhibition at the North Carolina Museum of History that he is a part of, entitled "Health and Healing Experiences in North Carolina," as well as her dream for the building that housed her father's practice.
Milton Quigless, a fifth-grade dropout who eventually went back to school and got his medical license, came to Tarboro from Mississippi in 1936 with $7 in his pocket.
"He gave $6 to Mount Zion AME, you know he was tithing, and kept $1 for himself," she said.
Dr. Quigless tried unsuccessfully for 10 years to get certified at the local hospital, Edgecombe General, but found he could not because of segregation and Jim Crow laws, she said.
So, he got a loan, not from a Tarboro bank, Carol Quigless said, but from the People's Bank in Raleigh and started his own clinic. The 26-bed hospital had men's, women's and pediatric wards, as well as a drug dispensary, operating room and OB/GYN ward, among other things.
"This is where I was born and a whole lot of people from Tarboro were born here," she said of the delivery room and OB/GYN ward.
Carol Quigless' younger self was scared of two rooms: the one housing the X-ray machine and the one with the autoclave or sterilizer.
She also had strong memories of the maternity ward.
"I remember this because every once and awhile you'd get someone moaning or screaming," she said.
As she walked through the halls, she pointed out where she or her brother had this or that surgery, tonsils out, appendix out.
"My sister Helen never had any surgeries in this hospital though," she said. "Interesting."
Since there were few schools that would allow blacks, Quigless had to train much of his staff.
"He had to train people here to do the jobs," Quigless said. "He trained nurses to get their RN, on-the-job training."
This included training nurses to assist him with surgeries, which he performed up until the rules and regulations changed in the 1960s.
"When he was operating, you'd come by and he'd be whistling or singing," she said. "It's a way to keep relaxed so you could focus."
Quigless spoke of her father's kindness and his willingness to treat everyone, regardless of whether they could pay with money or not.
"For farmers with no money, father would do barter," she said. "My father had to feed people up here."
She remembered fondly when people from the coast would come to her father's clinic and bring shrimp and other seafood.
"It all worked out really well," she said.
It was clear from the way Quigless described her childhood and her father that fond memories dominated her recollections.
"To me, I grew up roaming the halls down here," she said. "The nurses were really nice and everything. It was a nice place. I liked it."
Quigless donated a great deal from his clinic to the Raleigh exhibit while he was still living, though he died before it opened, in November 1997. The exhibit started in 1998 and was only supposed to run four or five years, according to his daughter. It is in its ninth and final year and closes June 3.
"It's an amazing exhibit," she said. "This is everybody's last chance to see it. It's not just because my father's in it that I'm saying it's an amazing exhibit: It just is."
The award-winning exhibit was about medicine in North Carolina, from the Cherokee and sweat lodges all the way to advances in modern medicine.
"That in itself is historic, just to have him in such a huge exhibit," Quigless said.
She did not know if the exhibit was going to run again any time soon, but she said she believed the museum was the right place for her father's possessions because they would be able to take good care of them.
"That's a piece of history that's going away now," Quigless said. "Everyone I've talked to that's ever seen it has just been amazed at how incredible an exhibit it is."
There is an exhibit at the current Quigless clinic, albeit a much smaller one, inspired by "Health and Healing Experiences in North Carolina."
It was the brainchild of the late Helen Quigless, Carol's sister, and Michele Cruz, curator of the Quigless Clinic-Hospital Historic Exhibit.
There, in what was once a waiting room, are pictures of Quigless, some of his many degrees and certifications, some old machines, including the once-terrifying autoclave, and some personal items, including the late doctor's fedora.
Cruz and Helen Quigless, in conjunction with the N.C. Museum of History, put together a film about Quigless, including interviews with the late doctor himself, his son, Milton Quigless Jr., and patients and employees, all of whom had only the highest praise for the doctor.
Carol Quigless hopes to carry on her father's legacy with the Quigless Center for Vibrant Health, a center for natural health.
She is bringing in an acupuncturist, Dr. Robert Pettis of Greenville, June 7. Pettis is a trained medical doctor. A masseuse, Myra McCall of Tarboro, will also be doing sessions in the building. She also hopes to bring in a nutritionist.
Quigless herself is certified in many different alternative therapies, including reiki and the result system.
It's applied kinesiology to communicate with the subconscious to find out what the body needs," she said.
It is very much about a mind-body-spirit connection, she said, but it does not interfere or work against any belief system that she is aware of.
Still, she was very clear that what she is trying to do with the Vibrant Health Center does not, in any way, replace seeing one's regular doctor or therapist. Instead, this works in conjunction with conventional medicinal practices.
With all this, Carol Quigless is trying to live what her father taught her, even though she did not follow his express wishes and follow in his footsteps by becoming a surgeon.
"I often think about dad's legacy," she said. "And I hope I carry on his legacy."
