On Wednesday, Juana “Jenny” Cue turned 100 and retired after 70 years of service at Santa Barbara Cottage Hospital.
Cottage honored Cue and her amazing milestones by hosting a special celebration at Santa Barbara Cottage Hospital. At Wednesday’s event, 25 of the 26 members of Cue’s family that joined her were born at Cottage.
“We are extremely grateful for Jenny,” said Ron Werft, President & CEO of Cottage Health in a press release. “She’s been an important part of Santa Barbara Cottage Hospital for more than half its 131-year history and has had a positive impact on countless patients. We are definitely going to miss her.”
Cue was born in Kansas on March 22, 1923, where her father worked for the railroads. When she was seven years old, her family moved to Mexico. After high school in Mexico, she returned to the U.S. in 1942 and moved to Indio, California. She and her husband, Alfredo, found Indio to be too hot, so they moved to Santa Barbara in the mid-1940s, where she worked in a local lemon packing plant.
Cue then began working at Santa Barbara Cottage Hospital in 1953. Cue was 30 years old. She joined Santa Barbara Cottage Hospital in the linen processing department. At the time, the hospital administrator, Rodney Lamb, wanted to be oriented in every SBCH department, and when he arrived in linen processing to learn, it was Cue who trained him. Folding sheets was a two-person job and the technique resembled dance moves, so Cue and Rodney would “dance” together as they folded sheets. That memory still makes Cue smile.
In the early 1990s, Cue was trained in the sterile processing department to wrap linen and basins for sterilization, and her responsibilities changed. “This was a good move for me, and I’ve always liked what I do.” In 2011, Cue transferred permanently to the sterile processing department.
Cue is the proud mother of three, grandmother of four, great-grandmother of eight and great-great-grandmother of one – all four generations were born at Cottage.
