Rebecca Ann Reese

PJ Reese memories -

Rebecca was brilliant and succeeded at everything. After completing her undergraduate degree, she moved to Chicago to do a Master's in Psychiatric Social Work at the University of Chicago and residency at Michael Reese Hospital. She wanted to do her Master's at Columbia, but they would not accept her because she was too young (21). It was while she was in Chicago that she was diagnosed with Hodgkins lymphoma. She had been having troubles with her throat and finally someone discovered it. The only treatment at the time was I.V. mustard, a terribly painful treatment, and blood transfusions. She started the treatment in Chicago but then moved to El Paso to do social work. Her mother Velta went to check on her in El Paso around Labor Day 1963 and was extremely alarmed by how terrible and thin she looked. Rebecca refused to return home with her mother, so Velta called Willard Sr. who flew down to El Paso and demanded that she return with them. Rebecca came back with them to Conway, Arkansas, and died within the month.

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Rachel Reese addition -

In the 1950s doctors used Nitrogen Mustard to treat Hodgkins. In 1963 the first combination chemotherapy regimen was developed called MOMP (cyclophosphamide, vincristine, methotrexate, and prednisone). In 1964 this was changed to MOPP (methotrexate, nitrogen mustard, procarbazine and prednisone) and was able to cure approximately half of all patients with advanced stage Hodgkin’s lymphoma.