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Longtime Nurse Dies at 101

No matter what name they called her, Mary Magdalene “Laney” Havis always responded to a request for help from her family, friends and the thousands of patients and physicians she served as a nurse, aunt, sister, wife and friend.

In her final days, they returned the favor by serving her.

Havis died Aug. 1 after several years of health issues. She was 101.

Havis, born in New Jersey in 1907, was a nurse at Alta Bates Hospital, now Alta Bates Summit Medical Center, in Oakland for 30 years. Operating as head nurse on the third floor in the men’s urology department, she became known as “Third Floor Havis” because that is how she always answered the phone.

“I didn’t even know Mrs. Havis had a first name until about 10 years ago,” said Elena Griffing, 82. Griffing had been friends with Havis since coming to Alta Bates in 1946. Havis began working there in 1935.

“She was my very first friend at Alta Bates,” Griffing said. “She was an absolutely marvelous nurse and all of the doctors absolutely adored her.”

After three decades at Alta Bates, Havis shifted into private practice work with a urologist. She worked until she was in her 80s.

Havis’ nursing career began in 1927 in Oregon, where she attended hospital nurse training. During her training, Havis met her husband, Clovis Havis, and they were married in 1931. Clovis died in 1991, just before the couple’s 60th anniversary.

“She and her husband were always doing something for someone,” said Grace Sautter, Havis’ sister-in-law. “She was like a sister, although I have two sisters of my own.”

While Havis did not have children of her own, she went above and beyond in her role as an “amazing” aunt to her nieces and nephews.

“Even though she was my aunt, you could say she was like a grandma to me as well,” said nephew Bill Sautter, 45.

Bill said some of his earliest memories are of holidays spent at his “Aunt Laney’s” house.

“Believe me, the best gift you can possibly get from her for your birthday or for Christmas was if she baked you some extra rolls or some apple pie,” he said, adding that his aunt’s apple pies were “legendary.”

Griffing said Havis herself was legendary.

“In all the years that she worked (at Alta Bates), the nurses truly looked up to her because she was such a good nurse and so darn conscientious,” she said.

Griffing said Havis was, “not only a beautiful human being, (but) one heck of a nurse.”

Bill said Havis was, “the most amazing, indefatigable spirit.”

“She may have had the body of a 100-year-old, but she had the mind and the spirit of a 20-year-old and I think that’s one of the things that kept her young for so long,” he said.

Grace Sautter said she will miss Havis’ smile and laughter the most.

In June, Havis’ family threw a large party to celebrate her 101st birthday.

“I will think of her every day,” Bill said.

Memorial services will be held 2 p.m. Friday at Grand Avenue Seventh-day Adventist Church in Oakland, 278 Grand Ave.

(c) YellowBrix 2008

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