Elizabeth Finch West became a member of the Sigma Delta Chapter of Kappa Delta at Trinity College (now part of Duke University). She was only at the college for a year, but an obituary in the Duke University Alumni Register noted that “during that one year she endeared herself to all who knew her.”
In the fall of 1921, The Angelos of Kappa Delta reported that she was an assistant at her father’s hospital. Dr. Adam Tyree Finch, Sr. started the Chase City Hospital; it was private with 25 beds, a laboratory and x-ray machine.
She also studied and graduated from Tucker’s Sanitarium in Richmond, Virginia. In 1926, she was a Registered Nurse and was superintendent of the Chase City Hospital. After her father’s hospital closed shortly before his death, she became superintendent of nurses at the Grandy Sanitarium in Norfolk, Virginia. She worked there until her marriage to Phillip Bevington West on Monday, September 7, 1936.
The bride wore a navy ensemble with an orchid corsage. She was escorted by her brother Dr. Adam Tyree Finch, Jr. and the ceremony was performed by her brother, the Reverend Will Carrington Finch. Her sister, Mary, a missionary, was home from Hiroshima, Japan, and was her only attendant. After the ceremony, which took place in her family’s home, there was an informal reception for 70 friends and family.
Her doctor brother was starting a new hospital in Chase City and she assisted him in whatever ways she could. She divided her time between between Norfolk, where her husband was a lawyer, and in Chase City where she could help her community. In early 1938 she became pregnant. What should have been a joyous occasion turned tragic.
The death certificate for Mrs. Elizabeth Finch West is signed by the attending physician A. Tyree Finch, her brother. A caesarean section was performed on October 1; Betty Carrington West died the same day as her birth. The cause of West’s death is listed as late toxemia pregnancy along with severe abruptio placentae, complete anuria and complete uremia. Her kidneys failed and she died on October 6, 1938, at the age of 36.
The Chase City Progress newspaper said of her in an editorial:
What emotions, memories, thoughts, and the simple statement of her home going awakens in the minds and hearts of Chase City, no one can know. We cannot list her many contributions to our community, for there is scarcely one of us whom she did not serve faithfully, efficiently, and joyously. However, our gratitude extends far beyond the actual work she did for us. It is rather for the charm, the humor and the spirit of her service, that we would be grateful. And in this moment of mingled sorrow and triumph, a new inspiration is born, which will lead us one step further to the splendid reality of fine living which was exemplified her abundant life.
The Chase City Women’s Club at its December 1936 meeting resolved that the club would sponsor a memorial for West. It would provide funds to care for the undernourished children in Chase City.
