Dixie Jean Rigby, Clay County

Interviewee: Dixie Rigby
Interviewer: Kate Scott
Date of Interview: August 20, 2007
Location of Interview: Spencer, Iowa
Run Time: Approximately 20M

Cassette
Biographical Data Form
Oral History Release
Scrapbook (Copy)
Photographs (3)
Newsclipping, “Polio Victim Showing Steady Improvement”
Northwest Iowa Polio Survivors Mailing List
Northwest Iowa Polio Survivors Newsletter
Transcript

Dixie Rigby, the youngest of seven children, was born in Worthington, Minnesota in 1945. As a youngster, Dixie caught tuberculosis, “it settled in my glands on the right side of my neck. I was in surgery for nine and a half hours. I can remember having my neck all wrapped up. We think TB lowered my immune system and that may be why I got polio so easily.” Dixie was diagnosed with polio at the age of nine. She remembers having a terrific headache and stiff neck. She was quarantined in a private room at University Hospital in Minneapolis. After receiving treatment at University Hospital, Dixie was transferred to the Sister Kenny Institute. She was placed in an iron lung for two or three weeks, but what she remembers most about the Sister Kenny Institute were the hot packs and the intravenous feeding. “They would come around with a big washtub full of hot water. The heating system was underneath and they would put these hot packs all over my body – even on my face. I showed them. I knew I would live through it – and, I knew I would walk again.” Today, Dixie serves as the President of the Northwest Iowa Polio Survivors (NIPS). “It is really helpful,” said Dixie, “we support each other and have about 23 members all together.”